,.j: ^k.Cll »^:Wfi ......'Ik: f>,. f^i:. ..■■; -,|.- ' 'viryV'-',^-1' ••'■ v.-i '■ Bi:iikv:i-.l!\|''-i'r V"' •■"■;•-,', ■':'I •'•>'"'■ •Jti p^.'iv'-Ji'/ii'r-!'-,':-:);.'.'?-1" 1 ^•■ci-i ■,i-;-,r','. illl^:S: ?■ V-V»^Ov'i.-1v.';'.'.,;r.v.l.-.: V .\);. .'■'■'.-V- ■■.v. ■.'■• ■' ' V';'. NLn 005bl35b b SURGEON GENERAL'S OFFICE LIBRARY. -> 4NBW> Section, ._ 4MHJSX ^/>0- '- /-&3JU NLM005613566 ' ■ ^ ^ :'r?'" • ■ i ■ ■. :■ :r.' - ■ v..'.:-:'. ^ 'fc'r,: : eJt-< ■■"■" r> by Dr. Gardner, an old friend of his when a boy. He was then working at his trade in the city of New York as house carpenter and stair-builder, having had but little experience as an architect. After several conversations with him the writer gave him the style and dimensions of the proposed building, the division of its wards, and the dimensions of all its rooms. Under his direction Mr. Perry developed the plans of the Asylum, and they were presented to the board of trustees for their approval. Dr. Francis suggested that the basement of the building be raised eleven feet, and this suggestion was adopted. A discussion followed as to Mr. Perry's ability and experience as an architect, the majority declar- ing that they did not justify the board in employing him upon a work of such magnitude, but that, if the writer would be responsible for mistakes made by him, they would vote to accept his plans. Mr. Perry agreed, in the event of his appointment, to draw all the working plans, and to superintend the construction of the Asylum at two per cent compensation on the cost. On these conditions Mr. Perry was appointed architect. He proved himself entirely competent. Not a change was made in the plans, and not a brick or stone altered after being once laid, Mr. Perry thus winning in this his first work, a reputation which brought him conspicuously before the public. The Asylum was built by the day's work with the exception of the basement of the west building. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. ix inches wide, and forty feet high. It is to be lighted by ten gothic windows. The first story of the transept of the west building will be divided into four rooms; each room is to be twenty-eight feet long, twenty-four feet wide, and fourteen feet high. These are to be used for the superintendent's office and sleeping-room, trustee room, and reception room. The second story of the transept will contain three parlors, two of which are to be twenty-eight feet long, twenty-four feet wide, and sixteen feet high. The third parlor will be thirty-four feet long, seventeen feet wide, and sixteen feet high. These parlors will be connected by sliding doors. The tran- sept will contain sixteen tower rooms, and will be divided transversely by a hall fourteen feet wide, running from front to rear entrances, and longitudinally by another hall of the same width, communicating at each end with the corridors of the wings. The winter garden, or conservatory, when com- pleted will be eleven hundred and fifty-four feet long, twenty- eight feet wide, and will accommodate about one hundred thousand plants, which will afford the patients recreation and study, and make for the Asylum a perpetual summer. Bowl- ing rooms, billiard rooms, and gymnasium will contribute to the exercise and amusement of the patient. Four bath- rooms will be located in the east building, and will be twenty-two feet square, and ten feet high. These rooms will be furnished with all the appliances of the Russian bath. The workshops will be located in the east building, and Avill be eighty feet long, twenty-eight feet wide, and twelve feet high. The kitchen is to be located in the basement of the east build- ing, and will be forty feet long, fifteen feet wide, and ten feet high. The bakery will be located next to the kitchen, and will be twenty-two feet square, and ten feet high. The large store- room will be thirty feet long, fifteen feet wide. The fan-room will be twenty-two feet long, ten feet wide, and twenty-two feet high. The boiler-room will be twenty-eight feet square, and ten "feet high. The engine-room will be twenty-eight feet square, and ten feet high.* * The following is an extract, taken from a report of the founder to the legislature in 18G6: "The Asylum farm contains about four hundred acres of land, embrac- ing a great diversity of soil, and suited to a great variety of crops. This department will give a revenue to the institution, and afford employment to the patients who will take an interest in agriculture. "As soon as the funds of the Asylum will permit, we propose to have as many horses for the daily exercise of the patients as their health may demand. No one can estimate too highly the advantages of horseback riding to this peculiar class of invalids. '• When the grounds are entirely laid out and the roads completed there will be about three miles in circuit for riding and driving on land belonging to the institution." DESCRIPTION OF THE WOMAN'S NATIONAL HOSPITAL. LOCATED AT WILTON, CONN, The building will be 370 feet long and 70 feet wide; hav- ing a center pavilion, with tower and wings at each end, with a frontage of 90 feet. The principal entrance will be in the south wing, through a carriage porch and vestibule entering a spacious hall on s the first floor, 16 feet wide, at either side of which are the reception rooms, physicians' offices, Sec. Through folding doors at the end of this hall commences the main corridor, 12 feet wide, extending the length of the building, with a traverse corridor in the center pavilion. At either side of the corridors are the patient's rooms, in size about 16 x 20 feet, arranged en-suite and singly. In the north wing are the chapel, library and dining rooms; adjoining them, the con- servatory. The three upper floors are arranged in the same manner and are reached by easy and spacious staircases and hydraulic elevators. The lower or basement story will contain the various offices, kitchens, store-rooms, heating and ventilating appa- ratus, rooms for special cases, and rooms specially arranged for Turkish baths. The exterior of the building will be natural rock-faced granite with dressed jambs to the openings, cut groins to the corners and cut string courses. The columns of the porticos and loggias will be granite with carved capitals; the loggias will extend on three sides of the building and the columns and arches will support the walls of the building above. All interior walls and partitions will be built with brick carried up to the roofs, which will be covered with slate, and the corridors and halls will be arched with brick and concre- ted so that in case of fire it can be confined to the apartment in which it may occur, without any danger of spreading through the entire building. The elevators will be enclosed in brick shafts with iron doors; the heating and ventilating (XI) xn HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. apparatus will be in a brick tunnel underneath the corridor, with boilers located outside the building. The interior finish will be of hard native woods, oiled. Every room will have an open fire-place, and many of them will have alcoves for beds, and all fitted up with gas, electric bells, Sec. The water supply will be from a reservoir on an adjoin- ing eminence 30 feet higher than the roof of the building, and the plumbing and drainage will be arranged in the most scientific sanitary manner. All ornamentations and decorations for the construction of the Hospital must be special gifts of individuals, or the building must be built perfectly plain. THOMAS. K. JACKSON, Architect. THE SITE. The site selected for the Woman's National Hospital is located two and a half miles from Wilton depot and fifty miles from the city of New York. It was chosen on account of its purity of air, seclusion and beautiful surroundings. It contains one hundred and fifty-three acres of land, is situ- ated on a plateau about four hundred feet above tide-water, and is easy of access. It commands a view on the south which overlooks Long Island Sound for more than thirty miles, while on the west, north and east, there are extended views of hills and villages in each direction for eight and ten miles. Eighty acres of the ground surrounding the edifice will be laid out in walks, drives and lawns; and the remainder of the land will be devoted to gardens, orchards, and farming purposes for the use of the Hospital. HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. CHAPTER I. NEW YOEK STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. The founder of the New York State Inebriate Asy- lum was its originator and builder. From the period of its conception to the time of its organization under the charter nineteen years intervened. Four additional years of labor passed before the corner-stone was laid. Six more years were given to its construction before the first room was finished to receive the first patient, and yet three more years of unremitted application were added to this long and difficult campaign, before the third ward of the asylum was completed and occupied. During this time the founder devoted more than ten years to the study of the morbid anatomy and pathology of inebriety. Two visits were made by him to Europe, and more than three years were spent in visiting its eleemosynary institutions. Such a study required the largest field of observation, and the most laborious drudgery of an enthusiastic investigator; and the result (13) 14 HISTORY X. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. of this extended study and observation was a firm con- viction that the effects of the disease, inebriety, were found to be the immediate or the remote cause of a large proportion of the insanity, idiocy, pauperism and crime with which society is afflicted; and that its victims, by the thousand, were to be found in the hospitals, dispen- saries, asylums, prisons and almshouses of this country and of Europe. At an early period in the work of founding the Ine- briate Asylum, the Avriter had occasion to take counsel with a friend, who may be regarded as a man of large experience and superior judgment. After he had heard the plan by which the proposed asylum was to be built, he remarked that the world would adjudge a man a fanatic who should be engaged in such an enterprise. u It seems to me," said this friend, " that if such an asy- lum as you propose to build were founded upon a great necessity, the great and good men of this land would have built it years ago." To impress him with the necessity of such an asylum, the writer recalled the fact that it was but four years since his brother had died a drunkard; that, while laboring under delirium tremens, he had attempted to take the life of his aged mother; and that both the writer and himself had been present on that painful occasion. This sad reminiscence modified his views with regard to the importance of an inebriate asylum, and changed his pleasantly satirical comments into a more serious consideration of the subject. Twenty- eight years subsequently he visited the asylum at Bing- hamton, and there looked upon the first inebriate asylum of the world, with patients in its wards, and with the greatest surgeon living, Valentine Mott, for its president. During his visit he stated to the writer that he had repeated the conversation referred to, to Drs. Benjamin HISTORY X. Y. STATE IXEBRIATE ASYLUM. 15 Prescott and John Stockbridge, the medical attendants of his inebriate brother more than twenty-six years before, and that they had expressed themselves in accord AA'ith the Avriter's views. "Feeling an interest in your success," he continued, "and Avishing to know more of the progress of your work, I made inquiries of your old preceptor, Dr. Hale, as to your progress in your novel enterprise, and he informed me that when you were reading medicine with him, you Avere working as a clerk seven hours a day, and, at the same time, Avere corres- ponding with a large number of physicians upon the subject of the morbid anatomy of inebriety, and that you Avould through perseverance and industry build this Inebriate Asylum." He also inquired of the writer Avhether the building of the Asylum had in any way compensated for all the self-denials and sacrifices made in crossing the Atlantic four times as a third class pas- senger, lodging in poor apartments, living upon a mean diet, and enduring the ridicule and contempt of the world. This gentleman Avas inclined to measure the suc- cess of human life by its accumulation of wealth, and to value human existence largely by the selfish pleasures it can afford. The reply was that the writer would rather have the pleasure of founding the Inebriate Asylum, and of Avitnessing the good it Avould accomplish, than to pos- sess the estate of the richest man living; that individual wealth will soon scatter, but a great institution will live on, and accomplish its work, so long as the necessity creating it continues to exist. The first fourteen years which the writer gave to founding the Inebriate Asylum Avere largely devoted to the study of the morbid conditions of dipsomania and its effects as a physical disease. Letters were written, and circulars Avere sent to prominent physicians, clergy- 16 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. men, judges and coroners, soliciting their experience and observation upon the physical, mental, moral, reli- gious, social, criminal and economic status of the drunk- ard. These letters and circulars excited but little inter- est, and brought but few replies from the professional men of that day. During the first three years, more than three thousand circulars sent to physicians elicited but one hundred and thirty-four replies; more than seven hundred sent to the clergy, but seventy-nine replies; more than five hundred sent to the judges, but one hundred and seven replies; while to the seventy- four circulars sent to the coroners, there were sixty-four replies. The fourth years labor in this special work brought a better return. Out of fifteen hundred circu- lars sent five hundred and sixty were answered, and, every year thereafter, there was an increased interest manifested by all addressed upon this subject. The circulars addressed to the physicians embraced the following questions: How many inebriate patients have you treated in your private practice for the last ten years? What percentage of these cases had inebriate parents or grand-parents ? What is the number of the insane and feeble-minded who have come under your observation, who have had inebriate ancestry ? What is the number of inebriate patients who have developed homicidal or suicidal mania? And what is the number of cases cured under your treatment, and what the num- ber that have died? The circulars sent to the clergy embraced but one question: How many members of your church have been disciplined, or expelled during your ministry for the excessive use of alcoholic spirits ? In the circular to the judges the following questions were propounded : Hoav many persons have been con- victed in your court for murder in the first or second HISTORY X. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 17 » degree, Avhose crime could be traced to the excessive use of alcoholic stimulants? How many divorce cases have come before your court, the cause of action being the excessive use of alcohol or opium ? Hoav many estates have been placed in the care of a trustee, the ©wner of said estate being a victim of alcohol or opium ? How many insane persons have been adjudged dangerous to remain at large, whose mental disturbance has been caused by inebriety I Circulars embracing the following question were sent to the justices of peace of the cities and large towns of the country: Hoav many commit- ments to the county jail or prison have been made by your court for the past five years, where the criminal has been a victim of alcoholic stimulants? Circulars were sent to the coroners of the cities and large towns of the country, soliciting the facts connected with all sudden deaths caused by acute or chronic inebriety, with a minute description of the morbid anatomy of each organ. If either the brain, heart, lungs, stomach, liver or kidneys were so diseased as to show a morbid anat- omy valuable in illustrating and establishing the fact that the disease of inebriety is mi generis, such morbid specimens would be of great value to the writer, and if placed in alcohol and forwarded to him a liberal compen- sation would be paid for all labor and expense connected therewith. Among the responses from physicians was one from Dr. H. H. Childs, of Pittsfield, Mass., in which he gave a brief history of a family for three generations, all of whom had died of constitutional or hereditary inebriety. The father, a hard and continuous drinker for thirty years, died at the age of sixty-one, with delirium tremens. His son, a periodical drinker, having his sprees once in tAvo months, died of convulsions at the age of forty-one. 18 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Of the four grandchildren, three sons were periodical drinkers, and all three died under thirty years of age. The granddaughter was the victim of insanity, and died in an insane asylum at the age of tAventy-four. In the year 1846 a large number of letters were written to the prominent public men of the country. Among the numerous replies there were but few which gaAre Avords of encouragement. That one great and good man among the many written to, appreciated the work of founding an asylum for the medical treatment of the inebriate, (his large experience of fifty years as an edu- cator giving him ample knowledge of the necessity of such an institution,) the following letter from Rev. Eliphalet Nott, D. D., LL. D., President of Union College, State of New York, will show: "Union College, Jan. 27th, 1K16. "DearSir:—Absence from home is my apology for not sooner replying to your letter, Avhich reached me in due course of mail. No one acquainted with the prevalence of inebriety and its frightful consequences can doubt the beneATolence of the enterprise in which you propose to engage. An asylum for inebriates is demanded by the Avants and woes Avhich ine- briety has occasioned in eA'ery part of the entire country. It is impossible to estimate the amount of good such an institution, Avell conducted. Avould be likely to produce. How such an object can be effected, single-handed, and without public patronage, I can not foresee. I know that the indomi- table will of an individual bent on doing good, may and often does, by the blessing of God, accomplish much. The best Avishes of the wise and good throughout the land will accom- pany you in such an undertaking; an undertaking in which it will be glorious to succeed, I had almost said, glorious even to fail. Wishing you the divfne blessing in an enterprise noA^el but full of promise, " I am very truly yours, "ELIPHALET NOTT. "Dr. J. Edavard Turner," HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 19 At this point it Avas found that public sentiment must be awakened and educated to this vieAv of inebriety as a disease. To this end four years Avere spent in trav- eling over nine of the northern and middle states, and during that time more than three thousand of the promi- nent men of the nation, knoAvn widely for their superior intelligence, large wealth, and undoubted benevolence, were visited and labored with; yet only sixty-six oat of the three thousand were found willing to subscribe ten dollars each to the stock of the proposed Inebriate Asy- lum, on condition that fifty thousand dollars should be subscribed to its capital stock, and a charter for its organ- ization procured from the legislature of the State of New York. There were three other subscribers of ten dollars each on the following conditions: The first, to pay his subscription when the Asylum buildings should be finished; the second, Avhen the Asylum should be finished and twenty patients under treatment; the third, when the Asylum should be finished, and the first patient dis- charged as cured, and remain cured at the end of one year. These three men were noted for their great Avealth, and for their large gifts to the religious and benevolent objects of their day ; they were intensely practical in their bestowals, never patronizing an object of charity unless it had proved itself a success by years of trial and experience. But life is short, and they were num- bered Avith the dead long before the first patient Avas received in the Hospital. Sixteen years of patient labor Avere given to secure subscriptions to the capital stock, and during that time over seventy thousand calls were made, the most of the travel by rail being done by night, to leave the day free for labor. To this part of the work must be added three years' travel, following the fire of 1869, to raise the thirty 20 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. thousand dollars necessary to re-build the portion of the Asylum then destroj-ed. From the year 1815 to the year 1866, inclusive, twenty thousand pamphlets were printed and distributed, adA'ocating the medical treatment and control of the inebriate in special hospitals. These papers had a Avide circulation in this country and in Europe. They pro- duced, in some minds a profound interest; in others, a pleasant ridicule; and, in some of the religious and tem- perance papers, a strong and bitter opposition. The first pamphlet published for circulation, describ- ing the morbid anatomy and pathology of inebriety and the system for its medical treatment and of special hospi- tals for its control, Avas submitted in manuscript to Drs. Yalentine Mott and John W. Francis in the year 1845. These distinguished physicians approved, endorsed and advocated the paper, and they gave their hearty and active co-operation in behalf of the Inebriate Hospital up to the last days of their professional lives. After Dr. Mott had read the paper, he declared that in a professional life of forty years he had accumulated facts enough to prove beyond a doubt that inebriety Avas a disease affecting every membrane, tissue, and nerve of the human mechanism; that it produced in its victim a compound fracture from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, as Avell as mental and moral dislocation. "To treat such a malady Avith success," said the great surgeon, " the legal splint and bandage must be applied to hold this sick man in place during the process of heal- ing, or the treatment fails, and the patient dies." The second pamphlet was published in 1854. It contained an address delivered by the founder before the Board of Trustees soon after the charter Avas granted to organize the " United States Inebriate Asylum." HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 21 The third pamphlet, issued by the corporation in 1854, Avas an appeal to the public for subscriptions to its capital stock. The fourth pamphlet, issued in 1855, contained the addresses of the Rev. Henry NY. BelloAvs, D. D., and the Rev. Roswell I). Hitchcock, D. D., delivered in the Broadway Tabernacle, November 7th, 1855, in behalf of the institution. The fifth pamphlet, issued in 1858, contained the addresses of Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, Hon. Edward EArerett, Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson, John W. Francis, M. D., LL. D., Rev. Henry W. Bellows, D. D., John L. Lewis, Grand Master, and a poem by Alfred B. Street; all of Avhich Avere delivered at the ceremony of the lay- ing of the corner-stone of the " New York State Inebriate Asylum" at Binghamton, N. Y., September 24th, 1858. The sixth pamphlet, issued in 1859, Avas in the form of a letter, addressed to the Hon. Edwin D. Morgan, governor of the State of New York. The seventh pamphlet, issued by the Board of Trustees in 1860, appealed to the public for additional subscriptions to its capital stock. The eighth pamphlet contained an address by Yal- entine Mott, At. D., LL. D., delivered at Binghamton, N. Y, in 1861. The ninth, tenth, eleA'enth, and twelfth pamphlets Avere published in the form of reports to the legislature of the State of New York. THE AUnRESS OF THE FOUNDER, DELIVERED BEFORE THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNITED STATES INEBRIATE ASYLUM AT THE NEW YORK SOCIETY LIBRARY ROOMS, DECEMBER, 20TH, 1854. Gentlemen :—It is our purpose to lay before you the his- tory and pathology of inebriety. AVe shall speak of its des- M m JOHN D. WRIGHT. <~S/€e -9# #~CC4t«&C>^-^ 24 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. tractive influences upon nations and individuals, and present the method of treatment proposed by this Asylum. Inebriety is the first disease of which we have any record. It dates its existence from the birth of the grape, the forma- tion of Avine from which was one of the first discoA'eries of man. We find nothing in the medical records of the Egyp- tians to proAre that it was recognized as a disease. _Escula- pius, Hippocrates, and Galen are likewise silent upon the sub- ject. Yet Ave have for the recorder of the pathology of ine- briety the most renowned man of ancient or modern times. Solomon describes the malady in the most significant lan- guage. "At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." Thus we haAe sacred history to establish the fact that inebriety was the most frightful and destructiA'e disease then known, comparing it to the venomous bite of the serpent and the deadly sting of the adder, for Avhich there is no specific. We are compelled to trace the influence of this disease in nations rather than in indiA'iduals, and form our opinions from the facts of history which record the rise and fall of nations. When/the seeds of this deadly disease Avere soayii by the great men of Babylon, Egypt. Greece and Rome in their Bacchanalian feasts, then the greatness of these mighty nations began to decline and their chosen people perished and passed away. Babylon, Avith all her glory and magnifi- cence fell into the hands of the Persians when her rulers Avere drunk with Avine, and her people maddened by the intoxicat- ing bowl. .By inebriety, Egypt lost her ruler, the Avorld her conqueror, in the death of Alexander the Great in the :-}:-Jrd year of his age. The historian pens the painful fact that he perished by a disease that "biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder/' Polished Greece, the great depository of the arts and sciences of the ciAilized world, the residence of the historian, philosopher, statesman and physician, Avas the first Avhich erected a temple to the god Bacchus. Little did her great men consider that they were dedicating a temple to a god on Avhose altar Avould be sacrificed the glorv of their beloved country. The Bacchanalian feasts in the Roman Empire were the cause of her degenerated councils and her weak government. Inebriety was the malady that destroved HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 25 the Roman statesman, general and soldier. Thus Rome fell by this physical contagion, and the dark ages followed her downfall. Arabic history proves conclusively that the Arabians were a temperate people. Their philosophers considered wine as the blood of the devil, and that AvhoeATer partook of it was devilish, and labored under the most loathsome disease. The Ishmaelite Avith his temperate and primitiAre mode of life combined with his indomitable courage, has proved to the physiologist that where the disease of inebriety has not been found in a race, there Avill be discovered a. full deA'elop- nient of physical power capable of enduring the greatest amount of labor and fatigue, a mind Avith energies that know no defeat, a will that can ne\rer be subdued. We have thus briefly alluded to the history of inebriety as a disease through the ages of the world Avhen alcohol was unknown. The Greeks and Romans Avere ignorant of ardent spirits. They neA'er understood the art of distillation. The method of extracting alcohol Avas discovered by an Arabic chemist, and was well understood in the time of Gaber, avIio flourished in the seventh century. The first spirits known in Europe were manufactured from the grape, and sold for medical purposes in Italy and Spain under the name of alco- hol. At a later period the Genoese made it from grain, and sold it in small bottles at an extravagant price under the name of aqua vita\ Erom this commenced a neAV era in the history of this important element which chemistry had revealed to the world. Distilled spirits were added to the fer- mented ones. Avhich by their combination have brought upon man a greater agent in producing the disease of inebriety than was felt by the ancients. We are not able to glean much from history as regards the effects of inebriety upon individuals from the seventh to the twelfth century. The primitive mode of life of the north- ern barbarians prevented them from being exposed to the Bacchanalian feasts of the polished Greek and the luxuriant Roman. In proof of the fact that alcohol was not generally known in the dark ages, we can state that in the thirteenth century it was sold as a cordial by the English apothecary, and drunk only in small quantities by the nobility and the 26 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. rich. Thus the source of inebriety was cut off, and the preA7a- lence of the disease rare. But where the grape Avas cultivated, wine was drunk in the most extraA'agant quantities; Baccha- nalian feasts were given and exchanged, and temples Avere dedicated to this god in every city and town in the south of Europe. After the religious crusades had passed, and prince, gen- eral and soldier had retired to their quiet homes, they at once sought an artificial stimulus to re-place the excitement incident to martial life. Then began the Avork of destruction and death. Hundreds of brave soldiers of the cross fell vic- tims to this malady. It regarded no geographical line; it pervaded all classes of men; it laid in the graA'e the bishop. who officiated in his solemn rites: the priest, avIio in a hum- bler sphere announced the truths of the Bible: thestatesman, Avhose wisdom was recorded in the policy of his goA'ernment; tlie lawyer, Avho presided upon the bench or pleaded at the bar; the merchant, Avhose ships traA'ersed every sea; the farmer, Avhose broad fields gaA*e their golden fruits to hungry thousands; last, but not least, the mechanic and the laborer, whose toil produced the Avealth of the world, and gave com- fort and luxury to the nations. The last argument Avhich Ave haA~e to offer in proof of the complete annihilation of races by this disease is found in the history of the Red-man of North America. After the sailing of Columbus and his braA*e associates from the shores of Spain in the month of August, 141)2. a new epoch is obseiwed in the crumbling and Avasting away of one of the noblest races upon the face of the earth. The aborigines of our country, (whose sad fate awakens the most painful associa- tions connected with its settlement,) Avere the A'ictims of this destroying malady. At the landing of our Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock, 1620.it isestimated that over one million and a half of Indians existed in our land; a people whose physical deArelopment and powers of endurance were above the average of the Caucasian race. Thus has passed away a nation of nearly two millions of inhabitants in the short space of time of two hundred and thirty-five years—a fact that has no precedent in history, and a phenomenon for the physician to investigate. HISTORY X. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM 27 We now proceed to give the pathology of inebriety in its distinctivecharacter. AYe shall show the marked peculiarities of this malady, which distinguish it from all other diseases. Inebriety is produced by alcohol introduced into the stom- ach, thence taken up by the absorbents and carried into the blood. This fluid, deteriorated by alcoholic poison, produces disease in the various organs and tissues of the body. Thus we define inebriety as a disease which is constitutional and often hereditary. It has an independent pathology and a morbid anatomy, which is as well marked and defined as the morbid anatomy of any disease that the human family is heir to. It differs from all other diseases as widely as small pox differs from yellow fever. It will be important to state that alcoholic poison taken into the system may or may not produce disease. There are some constitutions so organized that the person may drink spirituous liquors immoderately for years, without producing much alteration in the functional condition of his system. Such persons may control themselves at any and at all times, leaving off their drinks when they choose. This remarkable phenomenon is noticed in «werv disease peculiar to the human family. There are persons who can Avalk the Avards of a yel- low fever hospital for years, and not have the least symptoms of yellow fever, while there are others, AvhoAvould contract the disease by passing the hospital. We will cite another case to show the influence of vegetable poison upon different consti- tutions. Eour men are working together in the field. They all alike come in contact with ivy. Three are poisoned and one escapes. This strange and unaccountable mystery which pervades the animal economy, is as noticeable in the child as in the adult. Thus out of a family of six children, eating from the same table, sleeping under the same roof, surrounded by the same exciting causes, four are attacked Avith scarlet fever, two die, two recover, and two escape without the least symptom of this disease. Men might as well argue that yel- low fever is not a contagion, or a disease, because Air. Brown or Air. Smith Avill not contract it, when subjected to its excit- ing cause, or that scarlet feATer is no maladv, because it fails to sweep the Avhole family of children into one common grave, or that the ivy is not a poison because it does not 28 HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. affect every constitution, as to argue that inebriety is no dis- ease, but a moral degredation, because there are a feAV who can drink for years without apparently becoming diseased. We Avould not for a moment entertain the opinion that an individual who Aiolates a physical law, does not break a moral one; but we do contend that a disease produced by a broken moral and physical law is as much a disease as if hereditary, and should be treated as such. The acute form of this disease attacks the brain, produc- ing a stupor of the mind, vertigo, sickness at the stomach, and coldness of the extremities. A deadly pallor of the countenance is observed in some cases; in others the face is flushed and the brain loaded Avith blood. This latter type of the disease often produces death in a few hours if left without medical treatment, as exemplified by the numerous cases annually occurring in our city prisons. In the month of April, 1S5H. six men Avere arrested and committed to the Tombs in the city of New York, in a state of inebriation. They were placed together in a cell, Avhere they remained for the night. In the morning the keeper of the prison called at the cell Avhere they were confined. Four of them were dead, and the remaining two were in a state of exhaustion. One of these soon after died. An inquest Avas held OA'er these bodies, and from post-mortem examinations a highly con- gested state of the brain was discoA^ered, proving that they died from an acute attack of inebriety, rather than from an infected state of the atmosphere. In tracing the progress of this disease, Ave pass from the acute to the chronic form and review the characteristic symp- toms and derangements as they appear in the body, as fol- lows : Indigestion with lack of appetite, costiveness, or a lax state of the bowels, Avith slimy and bloody stools ; a diseased state of the kidneys and bladder, indicated by mucous dis- charges; cold extremities, manifesting a lack of general cir- culation of the blood ; a bloated countenance, swollen limbs, and a dropsical body, demonstrating the torpid state of the absorbents; a fullness in the region of the liver, .denoting an enlargement of that organ ; a hard and dry cough, manifest- ing an inflammation of the breathing apparatus; large and indolent blotches or ulcerated sores upon the skin, revealino- HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 29 an impurity of the blood; a morbid state of the gall-bladder, producing jaundice, palpitation of the heart, indicating abnormal action of this great engine of life-moving power; a wild and delirious state of the mind, indicating a fearful change in the action of the brain, giving rise to defective A'ision, hearing, taste, and smell, proAing that the special nerves haA'e lost their power of communication from the outer Avorld to the inner man. AYe find that the brain takes on a diseased action, demon- strating the fact that it has an affinity for alcohol Avhich no other organ possesses. AYe also find that this condition per- ATades the entire nervous system, and produces a complete prostration of its important functions. Hence the mind is impaired, the will of the indiAddual destroyed, and at last the victim of this malady becomes a, wandering maniac. The following one hundred cases of dissection and post- mortem of inebriety establishes beyond a question the dis- tinct morbid anatomy and pathology of this disease, and proves most conclusively that the brain is the first organ Avhich becomes diseased from alcohol: Brain and stomach,........................................................................30 Brain, stomach and liver,................................................................27 Brain, stomach and intestines,........................................................IT) Brain, lungs and kidneys.................................................................10 Brain, stomach, liver and lungs,..................................................... 9 Brain, stomach, liver, lungs, kidneys, gall-bladder and intestines, ~> Brain, stomach, liver, heart, lungs, kidneys, gall-bladder, intes- tinesand urinary bladder,............................................................ 4 THE BRAIN. The morbid conditions of the brain in chronic inebriety are set forth in the following case: Air. R., a carpenter aged 40, who had been a hard drinker for eighteen years, was attacked Avith delirium tremens for the third time. AYe were called on the second day of his attack, and found him labor- ing under the last stages of insanity of inebriety. His eyes were red, and had a furious expression, rolling constantly with a Avild glare. He was under the impression that Avild animals and reptiles of monstrous size were pursuing and eiweloping him in their folds, and would cry out most piti- fully for relief. His face was tumid, the temporal arteries 30 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. pulsating strongly. His skin Avas hot and parched, bowels costive, stomach without power to retain food or medicine, and the nervous system in the highest state of excitement, preventing sleep. The patient died on the third day of his attack, after suffering the most excruciating torture. The body was examined twenty-four hours after death. The brain Avas diseased. The dura-water adhered Aery strongly to the skull, and was detached Avith difficulty. On the inter- nal surface of this membrane a thin layer of coagulable lymph was deposited. The veins of the pia-mater were tur- gid with blood. The Arentricles were enlarged, the structure of the brain was tough and contained numerous granulated substances, ATarying in size from a pin's head to a pea. From blood taken from the brain, a small quantity of hydrogen gas was collected. The stomach showed the effects of the disease from the slate color of its mucus membrane, while the liver, lungs, heart, intestines, kidneys, bladder, spleen, gall-bladder and bladder urine, were in normal condition. In our dissections and post-mortems, we find in all cases of chronic inebriety which terminate in death, the brain is or- ganically diseased; and, we also find alcohol in the brain when there are no traces of it in the stomach. Of this phe- nomenon Ave shall speak hereafter. STOMACH. Active inflammation of this organ, ending in disorgani- zation and death, is rarely met with as the result of an acute attack of inebriety. AYe haAe seen only three cases that gave proof of this fact by dissection. On the other hand, the stomach next to the brain, is most liable to disorganiza- tion in the chronic form of this disease. Xor is this remark- able when we consider the numerous congestions following every dram of ardent spirits introduced into its cavity. The following case illustrates its morbid appearance: Mr. S., a printer, aged 60, a hard drinker for twenty years, was con- fined to his bed ten days before we Avere called. We found the patient laboring under convulsions, Avhich continued un- til his death on the twelfth day of his confinement to his bed. Twenty-four hours after death we examined the bod v. AAre found the membranes of the stomach much thickened throughout, and of a slaty color, which is only observable HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 31 in the stomach of inebriates. Throughout the surface of the mucus membrane there were found a large number of ulcers, two of Avhich had eaten through the entire structure of the stomach, and near its pyloric orfice the membranes Avere of exceeding thickness. AYe carefully examined the other organs of the body, and found them in a normal condition with the exception of the brain and liver. The brain was indurated, and throughout the dura-mater and pia mater an oily sub- stance Avas deposited. The central lobe of the liver was much enlarged, and the entire organ in an abnormal state. THE LIVER. The liver, next to the stomach and brain, is an organ most subject to diseased action from alcoholic poison. The venous blood of the body highly charged with alcohol arrives at the laboratory of the liver Avhere it is manufactured into vitiated bile, unfitted to assist or promote a normal diges- tion. Repeated congestions of contaminated blood circulat- ing through the vessels of the liATer disorder its functions and disorganize its structure. The most striking instance of a diseased liver that has come under our observation was that of a Scotchman who died in Glasgow in 18D0. The history of this case was given to us by his brother, avIio was present at the post-mortem. He stated that his brother had been a hard drinker of beer and whiskey for fifteen years. Three months before he died he had lost the power of locomotion on account of his immense size. His death was sudden and unexpected. On the examination of the body it Avas found that the seat of the disease was in the liver. This organ weighed thirty-two pounds and six ounces, and was a fatty degenerate mass, which morbid condition is only found in this disease. In other examinations of the liver we find a species of tubercle diffused through its Avhole substance. These anomalous productions are of a light brown color, and on section have a granulated appearance. They vary in size, but most generally are of the bulk of a pea. They are the result of a slow process of disease produced in the liver from the alcoholic state of the blood in the chronic stage of inebriety. THE LUNGS. Since Ave have been investigating the morbid anatomy of this disease we have observed an emaciation of the body, 32 HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. attendant upon the chronic form of this malady, Avhich Ave have not been able to account for satisfactorily in all cases, on the theory of defective nutrition ; for in many dissections we have not only found the digestive apparatus free from organic lesion, but in a healthy state, capable of having per- formed its normal functions. From microscopic examina- tions of different organs to account for the causes of the wasting of the body. Ave have discovered in the lungs minute granulated bodies of a fixed texture, and identical in char- acter Avith those already described in the liA'er. Those bodies Avere found, in some cases, clustered together, in others, sep- arate, and embedded in the vesicles of lungs. AYe have fre- quently found them presented to the number of seA'eral hun- dred. Their usual seat is in the lower lobes, yet in some cases, they have been found in the summit of the lungs. That they are not allied in their nature to any species of scrofulous tubercle, is demonstrated by the fact that they never soften nor suppurate. AYe have sometimes found them present in the liver and lungs of the same subject, but this is not often the case; for when they abound in the former, they are generally absent in the latter. These morbid products generated from alcoholic blood are a source of great irrita- tion to the delicate structure of the lungs, and by lessening the diameter of its air cells render the organ incapable of performing its due office in the ventilation of the blood. The blood, therefore, being unoxidized, creates in its circulation through the system a hectic fever, which saps the A'ital energies of the system, and leads to the death of the body. The following, like a large number of similar cases that have come under our treatment, illustrates the morbid con- dition of the lungs in the chronic form of this disease, known as rum consumption: Air. AI., a laborer aged 48, a, hard drinker for eleA'en years applied for medical treatment one month before his death. On examination, Ave found the fol- lowing symptoms: Skin hot and dry; pulse quick and wiry; cold extremities; lack of appetite; torpid condition of the bowels; a hard and dry cough, Avith a. hectic fever. In our treatment we found it impossible to control the patient, and in spite of our exertions and remonstrances, he drank himself to death. Three days after death, Ave examined the body, HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 33 and the following morbid appearances were present. The brain Avas first examined, and found to be indurated. The stomach Avas in a healthy condition. The liver was dimin- ished in size, and in a scirrhus state1; the kidneys were en- larged, and exhibited a soft and spongy character. The lungs were dissected, and in the lower lobes Avere found a, large number of granulated bodies. The summit of the left lung was extensively affected with granulated substances of the same type, but of a larger size which had completely filled the air cells, and caused the suffocation and death of the patient. The other organs Avere found in a normal condition. THE KIDNEYS. This important excreting organ at times discloses on dis- section organic lesion. The morbid appearances met with in dissections of those Avho lmve died from chronic inebriety, are enlargement and spongy condition of the organ, and a softening of its Avhole substance. THE IXTESTIXES. This organ is not so liable to become diseased from alco- holic poison as the brain, the stomach, the liver, or the lungs. We find upon the mucous membrane of this organ ulcers which sometimes iiiA^oh-e its three membranes, and in some cases produce death. We also often observe that this organ is acted upon from its sympathy Avith the stomach and liver. Its conditions are therefore more frequently functional than organic. THE HEART. The following are the prominent symptoms met Avith in organic disease of the heart produced by chronic inebriety: A bloated face, and an anxious cast of countenance, attended with a dry cough without expectoration; an intermittent pulse; coldness of extremities, accompanied by dropsy of limbs; and a violent throbbing of the heart. Dissections reveal an enlargement of this organ, a thickening of its walls, and sometimes a quantity of serum effused in the pericardium. In order to demonstrate as far as the knife can detect, the morbid anatomy of the disease produced by alcoholic 3 34 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. poison, Ave instituted a large number of experiments upon domestic animals. Those selected Avere dogs, cats and rab- bits of full growth, Avhich Avere forced to take a quantity of ardent spirts with their food. To some were given rum, to others, brandy, Avhiskey, gin and malt liquor. At first Ave found it difficult for their stomachs to retain the stimulants, but, by perseverance, Ave succeeded in increasing the quantity taken up to a certain point. The}7 all began to decline under the use of these liquors, and one after another died. Those who partook of brandy failed first; next in order of fatality, were the rum drinkers; next, the whiskey drinkers; next, the gin drinkers; and, lastly, the consumers of malt liquors. The last class were the least emaciated at the time of their death, Avhile the others Avere reduced to mere skeletons. Fifteen of the brandy drinkers died Avithin twelve days, while five lasted twenty daj's. Of the rum drinkers eight lived until the sixteenth day, six to the twentieth, three to the twenty-fifth, and three to the thirtieth. Of the Avhiskey drinkers ten died within thirty days, eight Avithin thirty-five days, and tAVO surviAred until the fiftieth day. The aA-erage life of the gin drinkers Avas forty days, while that of the con- sumers of malt liquors Avas one hundred and ten days. All of these animals Avere dissected. The organs Avhich gaA'e the strongest eAidence of disease, Avere the brain, stomach, lungs and liver. These organs presented the same morbid appear- ances as are found in the human body in acute or chronic inebriety, viz: the brain Avith its indurations and conges- tions; the stomach and intestines with their inflammations and ulcerations; the lungs and liver with their granulations; and the kidneys and the heart with their enlargements. Out of the one hundred and four animals subjected to these experiments, the comparative result of diseased action on the different organs were as folloAvs: Disease of brain and stomach....................................................... 38 Disease of brain, stomach and liver,............................................. 25 Disease of brain, liver and lungs,.................................................. 16 Disease of brain, stomach, intestines and lungs,.......................... 13 Disease of brain, stomach, liver, lungs and heart,........................ 8 Disease of brain, stomach, liver and kidneys,............................... 4 Total,......................................................................................104 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 35 We prove by comparative anatomy that alcohol intro- duced into the stomach produces a diseased action and a morbid anatomy of the animal economy. These morbid con- ditions are as marked in their character, and as unmistak- able in their appearance as the diseased action and morbid condition of the body found in yelloAV fever generated from animal or vegetable decay. Every physician knows full Avell that a predisposition to become affected by certain diseases, on the application of the exciting cause, does certainly exist in the human family, and particularly in the diseases of inebriety, scrofula, gout, and mania. In some instances the predisposition is more strongly marked than in others, but where it is inert and insufficient of itself to produce disease, it requires the application of an exciting cause. This is the proper light in which we should view hereditary predispositions to inebriety as we find it in adults. Every family in our land is more or less predisposed to this disease. It may pass over one generation and appear in the next. So the grandfather and the grandson (the first and third generation) may be inebriates, while the interven- ing link escapes. This phenomenon is noticed by every com- mon observer. Does it then require a stronger argument than this to proA-e the importance of founding in our State an inebriate asylum? Has not every family throughout the length and breadth of America an interest in this institution paramount to all others? Dr. Darwin says: " It is remarkable that all the diseases from drinking spirituous or fermented liquors are liable to become hereditary e\Ten to the third generation, gradually increasing, if the cause be continued, until the family becomes extinct."—Botan. Gard., Part II., Note on vitis. Other cases of a similar origin are recorded in medical Avorks. Dr. William AYood, of London, in a Avork published on insanity, in 1852, says, in speaking of hereditary dipsoma- nia: "Instances are sufficiently familiar, and seA^eral have occurred within my OAvn personal knowledge, Avhere the father, having died at an early age from the effects of intemperance, has left a son to be brought up by those Avho haATe seArerely suffered from his excesses, and have, therefore, the strongest motive to prevent, if possible, a repetition of such misery. 36 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Every pains has been taken to enforce sobriety, and yet, not- withstanding all precautions, the habits of the father haA^e become the habits of the son, Avho, having never seen him from infancy, could not have adopted them from imitation. Every thing Avas done to encourage habits of temperance, but all to no purpose; the seeds of the disease had begun to germinate; a blind impulse has led the doomed individual by successive and rapid stages along the same course Avhich was fatal to his father, and which ere long terminates in his own destruction. This does not only occur among the lower orders, where it may be supposed that education has done little towards the cultivation of the mind, and the go\Tern- ment of the passions and propensities, for it is observed in those Avhose education and position in society afford the best guarantee that their conduct would be under the guid- ance of reason." No type of dipsomania has attracted the attention of the medical profession for the last ten years so much as delir- ium tremens. It is generally supposed that its increase is due to the preA^alent use of drugged liquors. This may be true, but in our opinion the true cause of the increase of mania-a- potu is found in the peculiar constitution of the patient—an inherited predisposition. Sixty years ago this frightful mal- ady was rare, and Avhen metAvitliAvas the sequel of manyyears of excess in stimulants. Since that period it has been on the increase, and is frequently produced by a feAv months indulg- ence in alcoholic beverages. AA^e have seen it deA'eloped after a debauch of tAventy-four hours. The morbid conditions of delirium tremens are transmitted from parent to child. The child has the same condition of constitution Avhich the parent gave it at its birth; so the child that is born at the tenth j^ear of its parent's excess (which excess continued in the parent will produce delirium tremens in the eleventh year) Avill require but one year of excess to become affected Avith delirium tre- mens. During our practice a large number of cases of delir- ium tremens have come under our observation and treatment. One of the most singular cases Ave have seen showing the hereditary predisposition to delirium tremens, Avas a man of sober habits, Avhose daily occupation for six years had exposed him to the absorption of the vapor from alcohol. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 37 This case Avas of twelve hours duration, and exhibited all the marked characteristics of the malady. Other cases of a simi- lar origin are recorded in medical works. George AI. Borrow, AI. D., member of the Royal College of Physicians, London, in his Avork on' Insanity, says: "This affection has been knoAvn to be induced in persons of sober habits, Avhose daily occupation has exposed them to the absorption of the fumes of alcohol." AI. Leverette also mentions a case similar. We shall now speak of the insanity of inebriety and its consequences. The acute form of this disease is more preA^alent in our city than any other malady, and sometimes the most rapid in its mission of destruction. The number of cases occurring during the year, ending June 30th, 1854, AAras 12,680, as found in the report of the Chief of Police. These were cases that Avere arrested for being intoxicated. From the acute springs the chronic insanity of inebriety, which marches in its course to that fearful and almost incura- ble stage of constitutional insanity, and often ending in dementia. Chronic insanity of inebriety is found in our insane asy- lums to a great extent, and produces more than forty per cent of the constitutional insanity in the United States. This stage of the disease should be treated in an inebriate asylum, where the patient Avould be entirely separated from insanity produced from other causes. Every physician knoAvs that the brain of an inebriate is too much diseased to be exposed to the fearful influence'of an insane asylum. It is, indeed, adding fuel to the flame, and consequences the most gloomy in character may follow. According to the census in 1(S40 there Avere in the United States 17,434 insane and idiotic persons. In reviewing the census of 1850, we find the number has increased to 31,397, making an increase for ten years of more than eighty per cent. At this ratio of increase the United States will have, in 1950, 11,203,632 insane and idiotic persons; and if our population should double eA'ery thirty years Ave shall have, in the United States, in 1950, a population of 243.839.285. making the ratio of insane and idiotic persons for 1950 to be one in twenty-one. 38 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. AYhen such fearful results of the mental annihilation of a people are presented to the mind as these statistics show, the inquiry is at once made, Avhat are the causes Avhich are work- ing the certain destruction of our race and country? By our inATestigationsAve have been able to show that the prolific mother of insanity and idiocy is inebriety. To dem- onstrate this fact still further, we haA~e only to state that in France, Avhere the chronic form of inebriety is but seldom seen, the number of insane is small, being only one to a thou- sand; while in Scotland, the land where inebriety is most prevalent, the ratio is one to five hundred and sixty-three; in the United States the ratio is one to seven hundred and fifty-one; in England it is one to seven hundred and ninety- three. In our visits to the principal insane asylums of Europe and the United States Ave have ahvays found by inquiring of the attending physician that in a large percentage of the patients within the asylums the insanity was caused by an acute, chronic, constitutional, or hereditary inebriety. The destruction of the physical and mental powers of the people of the United States by this disease alone is so A-ast in its character and rapid in its increase, that it requires no voice of inspiration to pen the certain downfall of our republic and the complete annihilation of our people. The simple rule of multiplication proves with mathematical certainty that before a thousand years have rolled away into the past, the historian Avill have written its gloomy epitaph by the side of her sister republics, Greece and Rome. The success which has followed the treatment of this dis- ease by the practitioners of the past and present centuries has been small indeed, owing to the want of a proper restraint which the physician needed OA~er his patient, and which he has not had at his command. Our treatment Ave will here describe in connection Avith that adopted at the present day. An asy- lum, instead of jails and prisons, a hospital, ministering to physical comforts and medical Avants, a retreat, looking out into the happy future of restored manhood, Ave offer as a substitute for iron bars and grates, Avhere the air vibrates with the oaths of the degraded thief and cruel murderer, or HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 39 the Avild screech of the maniac; Ave offer the physician who regards him as a diseased man, and treats him as a compan- ion, instead of the harsh and unfeeling treatment too often received from the keepers of our prisons and penitentiaries, Avho consider him in the light of a felon. In the treatment of this disease Ave have always used tonics instead of stimulants, having found that stimulants aggravated internal congestions, and produced a stage in this disease most dangerous in its results; a stage often fol- loAved by delirium tremens and convulsions. AYe have found that tonics when prescribed have produced a favorable action in the system. Baths haA'erelieved internal congestions, and mild cathartics haA'e obviated costiA'eness. Other remedies haA'e been used as occasion required. The success attending this treatment depends upon the control Avhich the physician has over his patient, as well as the remedies employed. We have had much trouble in treating seven-eighths of our cases, for the sole reason that before we had brought the tone of the system above par, and the brain to a corresponding state of health, our patient Avould haA*e fresh attacks of the disease, by being exposed to the causes of this malady. Relapse after relapse would follow until death closed the scene. From this Ave prove the importance of an asylum, where the patient would be under the complete control of the physician, and where medical, mental, and religious influences could be brought to bear directly upon him. A sufficient time must be allowed for the medical treatment of this class of patients. AYe shall noAv speak of the great results which Avill follow from the asylum which we by our humble efforts are endeav- oring to establish. AYe would state that the experience we have had for years past in the treatment of this disease where the patient has been under our control, demonstrates that more than forty per cent can be cured by an asylum. In conversations with Dr. A\alentine Alott, John AY. Francis and a large number of physicians both in this country and Europe, they declared that Avhen an Inebriate Asylum was established Avith a medical treatment and control over its patients that such a Hospital would cure forty per cent of its patients. With these medical facts before us and the 40 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. opinions of the great men of Europe and this country, we can look forward to the certain success of this Asylum. The people of our land call loudly for it, as shown by the fact that during the past eight years Ave have received from the different parts of the United States hundreds of letters, ask- ing when this institution Avould be ready to receiAe patients, as the writers had friends Avhom they Avished to haAre enter said Asylum. One of these letters Avhich Avas Avritten to ex- Governor Hunt, is as follows: "Philadelphia, Sept. 24, 1854. "Ex-Governor Hunt: "Dear Sir:—I take the liberty of addressing you on a subject that deeply interests me. Having seen your name connected Avith a benevolent institution, and heading a list of directors of the highest respectability, I haA*e chosen you, sir, as the only one whose name is familiar to me, for the in- formation I need in regard to the institution of the United States Inebriate Asylum. I am the mother of an unfortu- nate son, Avhose present situation demands prompt and im- mediate action. He is the son of the late Dr. T., and is in Ohio Avith my son-in-law. Has been engineering with him since last Avinter. Has done Avell until the Aveather became Arery hot. AYas sick and Aveak all summer. Air. H. informed me that he drank very hard, has had several fits, and has lost all power over himself to abstain from drinking. This is too dreadful for me to bear Avithout making an effort to save him. He is tAventy-two years of age and has occasionally indulged in drinking before, although the habit has never before been fixed. I appeal to your kindness as a widoAv mother. Is there any hope? Is there any refuge for my son? I beg you will Avrite me, and advise Avith me, and inform me Avhat to do to avail myself of the benefit of this institution, which seems to me to be the only way Avherein I can find any help, and you will receive the hearty thanks and kind feelings of an affectionate mother. I drink this bitter cup alone, save God, ' who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.' "Most respectfully yours, H. T." The Avants of such an asylum brings to us daily some poor, bloated, sick creature, knocking at the door of this HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 41 institution for admittance. A multitude of inebriates have applied in person at our office to enter the asylum. The liberally educated, the mechanic, and the laborer havre all come asking admittance to the asylum. One of the appli- cant's history Ave Avill give in a feAv Avords. About a year since a man called on us, who by his conversation and gen- eral appearance had evidently seen better days. He told us that he ay as a graduate of an Eastern college, and had been teaching school in Maine, but by dissipation had lost his situation as a teacher, and Avas now homeless and penniless. He said he came to enquire if the asylum for inebriates was open and to see if he could enter it. He told us that he kneAV his own weakness and that in his present physical condition it Avas impossible for him to recover and his only alternatiA'e was to go on the island among thieves or perish in the streets. For the further history of this man Ave are indebted to Dr. C, an episcopal clergyman of Brooklyn, which Ave will state in substance. "About dusk on Saturday evening," said Dr. C, "a man called at my house and inquired for me. The servant told him I Avas engaged. He then said that he Avished to see me on particular business. I Avent to the door, when the stranger said he Avished to have a talk AYith me. I asked him in, Avhen he first inquired if I Avas not from Yer- mont, and if I did not graduate from such a college, and if I knew such a family, and such a young man, avIio was a class- mate of mine? All of these questions I answered in the affir- mative. He then asked me Avhen I had seen this classmate of mine, and Avhat he was doing? I told him that the person he referred to Avas in New York about five years since engaged in Avriting for several periodicals, and bid fair to gain for himself a reputation in the literary Avorld, as he Avas a fine scholar, and would shine in any position. The man then asked me if 1 kneAV him? I told him I did not. Said he, ' please light another burner and see if you can recognize a familiar feature.' I did as he requested, but could not find a line upon his countenance to remind me that I had ever seen his face before. Said he, ' I am the person whom you have been describing—one avIio has been your associate and class- mate; one who at this moment stands robbed of every fea- ture which was once engraven upon every classmate's heart.' 42 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. I replied, •' Sir, you are imposing upon me—you are no such man.' He replied, ' Do you not remember the time we Avalked to such a place, and have you forgotten the conversation that took place in regard to such a person? ' I required no further proof. It was indeed my old acquaintance standing before me, a Avreck of humanity, in Avhose haggard counte- nance I Avas unable to discover a single feature of a once bosom friend." Such is the appeal and history of one who in early years bid fair to outstrip all his associates. Such is the biography of thousands Avho are perishing in a more friendless ocean than the Polar sea. The impulses Avhich prompted the men of our country to rescue the Arctic navi- gator were noble indeed; but the combined effort of our citi- zens to save thousands of our people from a clime more per- ilous than that in Avhich Franklin perished, Avould be an epoch in our history, and an honor to our common humanity. CHAPTER II. The first application to the legislature of the State of New York for a charter for the Inebriate Asylum, Avas made in 1852. This application was reneAved at the session of 1853, and also at the extra session of the same year. A charter, giving vested rights to the stock- holder, Avas finally granted by the legislature of 1854, to a corporation called the " United States Inebriate Asylum." The first amendment to this charter was made in 1855. The second, in 1857, changed the name of the corporation to the " New York State Inebriate Asylum." The third amendment was made in 1859 ; the fourth, in 1861; the fifth, in 1864; the sixth, in 1865. In 1866, the seventh, and last amendment made to the charter of the corporation during the founder's connection Avith the Asylum, completed all the Liavs required for the organization of the Asylum, and for the control of its patients. Sixteen sessions of the legislature were thus invoked before its charter and its amendments were granted. The committees of the House and of the Sen- ate, to whom these bills and petitions were referred, were addressed by the writer, and the importance of such an institution was urged in a personal interview with each member of the two houses. (43) 44 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. At the session of the legislature of 1857, the friends of the Asylum appeared for the first time before the Financial Committee of the House, pleading for ten per cent of the excise moneys of the counties as a gift to the Asylum for the medical treatment of the " poor and des- titute inebriate." The following: remarks Avere made before the Fi- nance Committee of the House by the Founder : " Of all the maladies to AA'hich man is heir there is none that requires an Asylum for its medical treatment more than dipsomania. YelloAV fever, cholera, small-pox, deafness, and blindness; all these, sad as they are, may be success- fully treated at home; Avhile the drunkard, Avithout a hospital, perils his own life, jeopardizes the lives of others, and dies at last a suicidal case of madness. In no physical condition in which man is placed, either in disease or in health, can Ave find him cheerfully surren- dering food, raiment, shelter, and friends, to gratify any passion or disease, excepting in a diseased appetite pro- duced by alcoholic stimulants or narcotics. Where is the human being who has the power of mind and deter- mination of purpose to withstand the torments of hun- ger and thirst Avhen rich viands and delicious waters are placed before him ? Will he not break bars and bolts to satisfy the cravings of famished nature? Blame not the inebriate then for breaking his resolution, and disre- garding his voavs, Avhen, in view of the Avretched results of his excesses, he lifts to his lips the poisonous draught, AA'hich, if the cause of all his Avoes, is the source of all his consolation. It puts to sleep the torments of his stomach, soothes his agitated nerves, and gives a moment- ary respite to his infernal misery. Can any person, Avho has witnessed the inebriate's sufferings, believe that the hunger and thirst of a famishing man are more terri- HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 45 ble than the morbid appetite of the inebriate; an appe- tite Avhich leads its victim to forego food, raiment, and every physical comfort, to spend his last farthing for alcoholic stimulants even when his emaciated body is perishing for the want of its natural sustenance? Surely such a malady of body and mind needs more than a temperance boarding-house for its cure! We might as Avell attempt to open a boarding-house for suicidal cases of insanity, and to expect success in such an enterprise, as to attempt to treat the inebriate Avithout a thoroughly organized hospital. Every principle of sound political economy, as well as an enlightened Christianity, shows that the State is bound to provide liberally for the con- trol and medical treatment of the inebriate. The drunkard has already paid to the State the revenue arising from the excise laAV (for it is not the vender, but the consumer who pays this revenue), a revenue sufficient in amount to provide asylums for his control, medical treatment, and cure. Yet the State, or, we should have said, public opinion, permits him to die in the jail as a criminal, and in the poor-house as a pauper, or to perish in the street, or to entail upon his posterity all the morbid conditions of this malady. What better use could the State make of the revenue arising from the excise laAV than to pay it back to the heart-stricken Avife, and to the worse than fatherless children who have been robbed of every com- fort of life to pay this revenue to the counties ? Should it not be restored to them by giving back from this Asy- lum a Avell husband and a sane father I If the State permits a revenue to arise from this traffic, it should amply provide for the disease it creates, by building and founding the most complete hospitals in the Avorld, cost Avhat they may. Our almshouses receive this revenue, yet there has never been a case of inebriety Avhich has 46 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. received control, medical treatment, and cure Avithin their Avails. It matters not in what direction this reve- nue is appropriated, it belongs exclusively to the medical treatment of the disease it creates. If the State appro- priates it to other objects, the State should provide for the cure of the inebriates from a general fund. Nothing short of this can cancel the State's obligation, and pre- serve its honor and integrity. " The government of France, Avhich has so long been celebrated for its humane and medical institutions, the nation that founded and built the first insane asylum, has never turned a deaf ear to the a](plications made by its scientific and medical men for assistance in founding hospitals and institutions of charity. France, Avhether at peace or at Avar, Avith her treasury full or depleted, has ahvays found money enough for every object which her leading men haATe considered to be important to the well-being of society, and to the preservation of the health and lives of her subjects. We hope that our State will imitate the noble and liberal policy of France, in first providing for all of her medical and humane institutions before extending her State improAements. Has not the State an interest in caring for the inebriate who has once presided over its government as its chief magistrate, sat upon its bench as its leading judge, pleaded at its bar, officiated at the sacred desk, instructed and delighted the student? Is it not more important to save the lives of such men to the State and to the world, than that of the insane con\Tict in our prisons? Has not the State a greater interest in the medical treatment of the drunkard which will rescue him from a premature grave than in the completion of her canals? In placing this Asylum in the front rank of the charities of the age, we Avould not diminish the importance of other great HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 47 benevolent institutions of our country. They are the expression of the noble impulses of individual benevo- lence. They are a shadoAving forth of that true human- ity and exalted maternal love Avhich our State throws around her Aveak and unfortunate children." Besides the Finance Committee being labored with, each member of the legislature Avas seen, and the claims of the Asylum to the tenth of the excise moneys Avere strongly urged before this and the succeeding legislatures of 1858 and 1859. Of the one hundred and sixty mem- bers of the legislature of 1857 only one was found will- ing to vote in favor of this measure, and in the legisla- ture of 1858, only forty-one; but finally, in 1859, the bill became a laAV. During the two and a half interven- ing years the founder, Avhile prosecuting the Avork of raising subscriptions, also solicited and obtained the sig- nature of more than eight thousand persons to petitions (asking this aid), which Avere presented to the three leg- islatures of 1857, 1858, and 1859. These petitions rep- resented the three learned professions of Divinity, LaAY, and Medicine, as Avell as the Avealth of the State. The necessity of this Inebriate Asylum Avas discussed between the Avriter and each of these petitioners, the key-note of the argument being that the preArention of crime is a better justice to the human family than the punishment of it; that it is far better to arrest the drunkard before he commits crime, and to place him in a hospital where he may be cured, than to arrest him after the crime is committed; that the most rigorous justice, the broadest humanity, and the most enlightened statesmanship, will approve and advocate the policy (that of Mercy and Charity) which founds asylums for the inebriate, is a better justice than the one which builds expensive court-houses for his conviction, costly jails and 48 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. prisons for his punishment, and the gallows for his execution. So just and so humane Avere the claims of this Hos- pital that but fifty-eight of the persons thus appealed to refused to sign these petitions. One of the gentlemen who declined to lend his influence in behalf of the Hos- pital was a wealthy farmer. He could understand the equity of the dog laAV AA'hich taxes the OAvner of the good dog to pay for the sheep maimed and destroyed by the bad dog, but could not see the justice of a statute which should tax a traffic for the medical treatment of the disease which that traffic creates. " I can not belie\Te the disease theory of drunkenness," said the farmer. " My Bible teaches that the drunkard is a criminal in the sight of God, and he is forever debarred from heaven." Another gentlemen, a professor in a college, refused his signature on the ground that the enterprise of build- ing asylums for the drunkard Avould encourage drinking. The moderate drinker would imagine that if he became a drunkard he could go to the asylum and be cured, and hence the fear of becoming such Avould be entirely remo\red. Another gentleman, an ex-juclge, withheld his signa- ture, declaring, "The old English laAV Avhich held the drunkard responsible for the crimes he commits, is, in my opinion, about right. This legal view of the subject would protect society better than the doctrine which adjudges the drunkard a sick man. Establish the fact that inebriety is a disease with hereditary tendencies, and you will destroy the English law, and place the vic- tim of the glass in the same status as the insane, and make communities responsible for his crimes. Having had some experience as a judge in trying all kinds of criminals from the sneak thief to the murderer I am HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 49 convinced that society would be injured by declaring the drunkard an irresponsible being. Three-quarters of the criminals Avho are tried would enter the plea of inebriety as a defence for their crimes." It is less than a century since similar arguments were used against the medical treatment for the insane as instituted by the able and humane Pinel of Paris. His work has touched the chord of human sympathy throughout the ciA ilized world, and his inspiration, left to mankind as a legacy, has brought into being more than a thousand insane asylums, thus, at last, making it possible to treat and to cure the " mind diseased." When Pinel, in 1794, began his work of convincing the leading men of France of the necessity of establishing a hospital for the insane, the very first argument against his grand project was that the insane person is a devil, a demon, a criminal who should be locked up in dungeons, and loaded with chains; and that the Avell being of society demanded this treatment. Twenty years after Pinel's appeal to France in behalf of his humane enterprise, the good people of Massachusetts began to agitate the subject of building an insane asylum. The leading journals of that clay opposed the undertaking, arguing that the building of insane asylums would have the tendency to increase lunacy and to multiply crime. Such was the intelligence of the editors of Massachusetts seventv Aears ago! The next law for the relief of the Asylum, Avritten by the Hon. Reuben H}rde Walworth, president of the corporation, was passed by the legislature on April 2d, 1861. The measure excited a strong and determined opposition on the part of some of the leading members of the House and Senate. These gentlemen argued that the bill, if passed, would give the institution a perpetual 4 50 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. contract Avhich the legislature of the State of New York could not abrogate or impair. Under this bill the trustees of the "New York State Inebriate Asylum," are absolutely empowered to fill the free beds in said Asylum with poor patients AAThen the donor and legator fail to name the said patients to fill the said free beds. This is the condition of every gift made for the endow- ment of free beds in said Hospital. Hence the charter of the institution could not be repealed, or its board of trustees abolished Avithout violating the tenth section of the first article of the Constitution of the United States, AA'hich declares that no State shall pass any ex post facto laAV, or law impairing the obligation of con- tracts. Another serious objection made against the bill by its opponents was that the laAV would repeal the tAvelfth section of its charter, thus surrendering forever all rights which the State of New York Avould have to its estate at the expiration of its charter. The tAvelfth section of its charter reads thus: "This act shall continue in force for the period of fifty years, subject, howeA^er, to amendment and repeal by the leg- islature. At the dissolution of said institution, the Asylum and the grounds attached thereto, shall be ceded to the State of NeAv York for some beneA'olent institution." Chancellor Wahvorth stated to Governor Morgan before he signed the bill, that no intelligent person Avould give, or leave by legacy to the " New York State Inebriate Asylum " the sum of five thousand dollars for the endowment of a free bed, unless t^ie twelfth section of its charter Avere repealed. The chancellor also stated to the governor, that by this bill the Hospital would receive a large number of endowments from wealthy men to establish free beds to provide an asylum for their inebriate sons. "Several such men have already spoken HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 51 to me," said he, " about encloAving free beds in the Hos- pital, provided they can be assured that their in\Test- ments will be perpetual. These gentlemen not only Avish to provide for their unfortunate sons, but they wish to endoAV forever free beds for poor patients. We have asked to be inserted in our bill a repealing clause, which reads thus: 'All acts and parts of acts inconsistent Avith this act are hereby repealed.' This clause repeals all laAvs upon the statute books of the State of New Y'ork AA'hich interfere Avith the endoAvment of free beds in the ' New York State Inebriate Asylum.' It also secures the property of the corporation foreATer for the medical treatment of the inebriate, and prevents the legislature from diA'erting the Hospital to any other use, and the stockholder from the sale of its estate. It Avill be Avell for me to state at this time, as president of this corpora- tion, that there has not been a single dollar of its funds paid to any member of its board for traveling expenses, or for professional services since its organization in 1854. E\Tery gentleman who has accepted a trusteeship in its board has understood before his election that his services and expenses were to be gratuitous. Not a dollar has been paid by the corporation for salaries of any office clerk or agent since its charter was granted, neither has it been annoyed by, or involved in, any lawsuit." After the chancellor had finished his statement, and the governor hud examined the bill, it was signed, and became a laAV before the parties Avho were interested in the measure had left the executive chamber. In the year 1862 an attempt AAras made by the Hon. Mr. Finch, the member of the Assembly from the county of Essex, to repeal the charter of the " New York State Inebriate Asylum," the attempt being encouraged by the Board of Supervisors of the honorable member's county, 52 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. and on the fifth day of the meeting of the legislature he introduced a bill to this effect. As soon as the writer could reach Albany (after the bill was introduced), he called on Mr. Finch, and requested him to AvithdraAV the bill on the ground that such a measure Avould not meet Avith the approval of the majority of his constituents. Mr. Finch replied that he had consulted a large number of the influential citizens of his district, and that they Avere in accord with his plan of repeal; he had also c< >n- suited with members of both houses of the legislature in reference to the measure, and they also had endorsed it. " I have reason to believe," said Mr. Finch, " that the bill will pass both houses unanimously, and I shall have the pleasure of seeing it a law Avithin sixty clays." The Avriter then stated that he should appeal to his con- stituents for the protection of the Asylum's charter, and would leaA-e the next morning for Keeseville the honor- able member's home, to canvass his county. Three weeks and a half were spent by the writer in this work, and in that time he secured the name of every promi- nent man in the county to a petition to the legislature for an appropriation of twenty per cent, of the excise moneys to the Asylum, at the same time securing more than eighty of the petitioners as stockholders; and more than sixty of the leading men of the county wrote to the Hon. Mr. Finch urging that gentleman to use his influence to procure the passage of a law appropriating double the amount of the excise moneys then being received by the Asylum. The result of the campaign through Essex county proved to the honorable member that the people in his district were intensely interested in the Asylum, and the bill for the repeal of its charter was withdraAvn by the honorable member from the hands of the committee to whom it Avas referred. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 53 Again in the fall of 1863, the Board of Supervisors of the county of Monroe issued a circular to all the Boards of Supervisors of the State, soliciting their aid in the work of instructing their members of the legislature to repeal its charter. "In. the repeal of its charter," stated the circular, "there would be a saving to the counties annually of about seventeen thousand dollars, now diverted to the building of the Inebriate Asylum at Binghamton." This neAv combination was a scheme finding the heartiest approval of eA^ery political manipulator of the two great political parties of the State. No one kneAV, or understood so Avell its formidable character as did the Avriter. He had traversed the length and breadth of the State, and had come in contact Avith the unintelligent masses, and Avith the prejudices of the average citizen Avho had never for a moment thought of the drunkard as a diseased man needing the medical treatment of a hospital. The intelligent, as Avell as the ignorant of that day, classified the drunkard in the same moral condition as the thief, the liar, and the murderer. They thought that the Inebriate Asylum had originated in the brain of some fanatic, and that the endoAvment of such a scheme had grown out of the A\eakness of human nature, the frailty of human judgment, and the absurdity of human action. But the most intelligent citizens gave it their moral support, and subscribed to its capital stock. Another class thought that the hospital had been pro- jected fifty years in advance of its time, and yet they saAV the necessity of its immediate existence in the disease and death wrought by inebriety at their very door. After consulting Avith Dr. Valentine Mott in refer- ence to the circular of the Board of Supervisors of the county of Monroe, it Avas thought advisable to invite the 54 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. prominent trustees of the Board to write to their influen- tial friends through the State, soliciting their influence in behalf of the Asylum. The venerable President of the Corporation, in the eightieth year of his age, wrote seventy-one letters to the leading physicians of the State, declaring his full and entire faith in the future success of the hospital. The folioAving letter Avill prove that Dr. Mott's in- terest in this special work of saving the Asylum from a premature death, was of no ordinary character: Professor James H. Armsby, M. D. Dear Sir:—As a stockholder of the Asylum, as a noted lecturer on Anatomy, as a physician of large experience, and as a citizen of great influence, the Board of Trustees solicit your aid in behalf of the institution in the hour of its Aveak- ness. There is an extensiAre movement throughout the State to repeal its charter. No institution for the medical treat- ment of disease was eATer founded upon a, greater necessity than the Inebriate Asylum, not eA7en my pet, the "Hospital for Operative Surgery." I have Avatched its growth for twenty years, have been familiar Avith all its details, have understood its classification and its therapeutics, Avas active in procuring its charter Avhich gave the courts authority to commit the inebriate to its care for one year. This labor of love, Avhich I haA^e so cheerfully bestowed on its early and feeble years, I hope and prayAvill be continued by the blessing of God to its final completion, and that this great Avork be the last of my long, successful, and happy life. AYith great consideration, I remain your friend, AALENTINE AIOTT. No. 1 Grammercy Park, New York, Jan. 23d, 1863. With the same object in view the Avriter visited fifty-one counties to secure the infiuence of the leading citizens of the State. He either saw or sent circulars to all the stockholders of the institution, asking them to write, or to send petitions, to their members in the legis- lature, praying them to protect the Asylum's interest. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 55 As the result of these combined efforts, not a bill, not a resolution, A\as offered in either House to disturb its income. In the year 1864 a bill carefully draAvn by Chancellor Wahvorth, and approved by Dr. Mott, was laid before the legislature, the first provision of which prohibited the sale of all kinds of fermented and distilled liquors within one-half a mile of the outward bounds of the lands and premises of the Asylum. The second provi- sion declared that no person should pass upon the lands owned by said institution Avithout Avritten authority from one of the officers of said Hospital. The third provision conferred the poAver on the justices of the supreme court, on the county judges of the county in Avhich any inebriate may reside, to commit such inebri- ates to the Asylum for three months. This bill excited strong opposition among the legislators, on the ground that such a law might under some circumstances be an instrument of oppression by confining persons not drunkards in the true meaning of that word Avithout power of redress; but after full discussion the bill be- came a laAV Avith but few votes against it. In the year 1865, a bill drawn by Chancellor Wal- Avorth, and approved by Dr. Mott, was brought before the legislature, making it a misdemeanor for any person to sell or to give to any patient of the Asylum, alcoholic stimulants, opium, or tobacco; and also to fine each such violator of the laAV the sum of fifty dollars. This bill was vigorously fought by a lawyer employed by the Binghamton liquor dealers, on the ground that it Avould be impossible for them to recognize the inebriate patients of the Asylum. This bill also changed the time of com- mitment of its patients from three months to one year. It became a laAV by a majority of tAvo out of one hun- dred and twenty-eight votes. 56 HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. The late Dr. Mott had long advocated the impor- tance of a police force to guard the Asylum from with- out, and to protect its patients Avithin; and, accordingly, the last bill presented to the legislature by the Asylum to complete its organization, Avas draAvn by Chancellor Wahvorth, authorizing its Board of Trustees to appoint a police force, and after some opposition, from the fact that no other hospital had asked for such a poAver to be conferred upon its board of trustees, it became a laAV April 18th, 1866. The "United States Inebriate Asylum" Avas organ- ized May 15th, 1854, but to secure its first Board of Directors, one hundred and forty-one gentlemen had been solicited, before twenty could be found willing to accept a directorship in its organization, four of these declining to serve after having been appointed by the legislature, and five meetings of the directors Avere called before a quorum could be secured. At this latter meeting, May 15th, 1854, held at the Tract Building, Nassau street, New York, at 2 o'clock of that afternoon, the following named gentlemen Avere present: J. D. Wright, C. C. North, N. Warral, N. A. Prince, G. P. Parker, A. G. Phelps, E. A. Lambert, G. B. Alvord, J. Terbell, A. Brush, J. S. Miller, J. E. Turner. The meeting Avas called to order by Anson G. Phelps, and John D. Wright Avas elected temporary chairman. The charter of the Corpo- ration was read by Anson G. Phelps, and unanimously accepted by the Board, John D. Wright Avas elected Presi- dent of the Corporation, N. A. Prince, Registrar, and J. E. Turner, Treasurer. The Board of Directors instructed the Treasurer to open stock books, and to receive subscriptions to the capital stock of said institution. At a meeting of the Board held in New York City, October 7th, 1855, a resolution Avas passed to call a HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 57 public meeting in behalf of the Asylum, to be held in Broadway Tabernacle, November 7th, 1855, and that the Rev. Henry W. Bellows, D. D., and the Rev. Roswell D. Hitchcock, D. D., be invited to make addresses at the said public meeting. At the same meeting the Board passed a resolution that the following appeal should, in pamphlet form, be issued to the public: ASYLUM FOR IXEBRIATES—REPORT OF THE DIRECTORS AXD APPEAL TO THE PUBLIC. AYe, the undersigned, appointed by the legislature of the State of New York, to organize an institution to be knoAvn as the "United States Inebriate Asylum," and to act as commis- sioners to receive subscriptions to the capital stock of said Asylum, do herewith submit to the public the following statement: The object of this institution is to provide an asylum for the poor and destitute inebriate, where his physical and moral condition will be alike the care of the physician and the philan- thropist, and where his labor maybe rendered productive and of service to his family. AVith the Asylum there will be con- nected workshops, in which each patient, as soon as his con- dition will permit, will be regularly employed, thus making the Asylum a self-supporting institution. It will be seen that the commuuity Avill thus be relieved of the burden of main- taining inebriates in almshouses and prisons, who will be separated from the society of those incarcerated for public crimes, and placed where their inebriety will be treated as a disease, and where no efforts will be wanting to produce in them a thorough restoration to health, and where an income from their labor will be secured to their families, who other- wise would be left to penury and suffering. To carry out successfully the great aim of the institution fifty thousand dollars must be raised, this being the amount of capital stock required by the charter. This amount, which can be increased when necessary, is divided into shares of ten dollars each. Any person wishing to subscribe to its capital stock, can send his name with the amount he will take to anyone of the 58 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. directors. AA'e think it judicious to lease a building or build- ings (until suitable edifices can be erected) for the purpose of entering at once, or as soon as practicable, upon the Avork for Avhich the charter AYas granted. In accordance Avith a provision in the act of incorporation, there will be a report, on the third Wednesday of January in each year, of the pro- ceedings, expenditures, income, and condition of the asylum, verified by the affidaAuts of the President and Treasurer, which report must be filed in the office of the Secretary of State. AYe are happy in giving assurance that this enterprise meets with the approbation and encouragement of many of the most intelligent and philanthropic members of the com- munity. The directors put forth this brief statement of their object and plan of operation Avith the expectation of meeting a quick and cordial response from the beneA*olent of this and other sections of the country. The call for sympa- thy and material aid in laying a permanent basis of an insti- tution that promises much for the recovery and salvation of a large number of the Christian brotherhood, Ave are confi- dent AYill meet Avith a ready response. This institution is not designed to conflict Avith any other method for recoA-ering the inebriate. There is no asylum similar to it in this or any other country. Thousands will look to it for help, and help they should and must haA'e. That Avhich Avas worth creating is worth preserving. The beneA'olent Father puts it in our power to save those who are ready to perish. To rescue a felloAV-being from physical and spiritual thraldom is worthy of the exercise of the highest talent and of the purest love. To reclaim from ruin is greater than to create. To turn one from vice to purity, from darkness to light, from death to life, to make him the possessor of a free, enlarged, and beau- tiful existence, is a diAdne mission. EveryAvhere goes up the AYail of Avrecked humanity, of prostrate and suffering broth- ers. From every side comes the cry for help. They are the true workers who respond to this cry. They are enriched in giving, and blessed in blessing. Fellow-citizens, Fathers, Brothers, and Sisters! Give us your aid in this branch of beneficence, and the blessing of multitudes will be your reAvard. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 59 Washington Hunt, J. D. AY right, G. P. Parker, Alfred Brush, E. A. Lambert, Henry Dubois, Anson G. Phelps, Noah AYarral, Jacob S. AIiller, G. B. Alaokd, Newel A. Prince, Zadok Pratt, Jeremiah Terbell, J. Edward Turner. C. C. North, CHAPTER 243. An act to incorporate the United States Inebriate Asylum for the Reformation of the Poor and Destitute Inebriate. Passed April 15th, 1854. The people of the State of New York, represented in the Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: 1. All persons Avho shall become stockholders, pursuant to this act, shall be, and they are hereby constituted a body politic and corporate, by the name of the United States Inebriate Asylum. 2. The said Asylum shall continue for the period of fifty years, Avith the poAver to sue and be sued, to make and use a common seal and alter the same at pleasure. 3. The said Asylum shall have power in, and by their corporate name to purchase, hold and convey real or lease- hold estate in the city of New York, and to erect thereon a building or buildings suitable for the purpose of an asylum hereinbefore named, and such other buildings as may be nec- essary for manufacturing and mercantile purposes connected Avith such institution, and to purchase, hold and conATeysuch personal property as may be necessary for the objects aboA'e specified, and for no other purpose Avhatever. 4. The capital of said Asylum shall be fifty thousand dollars, but may be increased to two hundred thousand dol- lars at anytime the Board of Directors may think it compati- ble Avith the best interest of said Asylum, and shall be divided into shares of ten dollars each, and shall be deemed personal property, and transferable in such a manner as the said Asy- lum shall by by-laws direct. And said Asylum shall be deemed fully organized, and may commence operations Avhen ten per cent of its capital is paid in. 5. On the first Monday of each year, fifty per cent of the income of said institution shall be appropriated for the exclusive purpose of supporting poor and destitute inebriates and their families. The remaining fifty per cent shall be a a fund to be appropriated for the payment of interest on the 60 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. capital stock of said Asylum, Avhich shall in no case exceed seven per cent, and other incidental expenses. 6. All the affairs and concerns of said Asylum shall be managed and conducted by and under the direction of tAventy directors, avIio shall be stockholders and citizens of the State of New York, and who shall be elected by the stockholders annually on the first Monday of January in each year, by ballot, by plurality of the stockholders present and repre- sented bv proxv, each share having one vote, and if, for any cause, such election shall not be so held, the said Asylum shall not be deemed dissolved, but such election shall be held within six months thereafter. Notice of the time and place of each election shall be published for tAvo weeks immediately preced- ing the day appointed therefor in two daily newspapers printed and published in the city of New York. 7. The Board of Directors, annually from their OAvn body, and as soon as may be after their election, shall pro- ceed to elect, by ballot, a President and Treasurer of the Asvlum, Avho.so long as they shall continue Directors of said As'vlum, shall hold their offices respectively during the pleas- ure of the Board of Directors, and said Directors shall have the power to fill vacancies in their own body, caused by the death, resignation, the ceasing to be a share-holder or re- moval from the State of New York, or otherwise, of any director or directors, and to make all such by-laws not incon- sistent with the Laws of this State or the United States, as they may deem proper for the management of the affairs of said Asylum; and shall appoint annually, by ballot, at least thirty (lays before such election of Directors of said Asylum, after- the first, three fit and disinterested persons, inspectors of the then next election of Directors, and at any time before the election supply any vacancy Avhich may occur in the office of any such inspector; and ten of the Board of Directors shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, and all committees, physicians, agents and officers author- ized by this act or by the by-laavs of this Asylum, shall be appointed by the Board of Directors. 8. No share-holder of this Asylum shall be liable, in his or her individual capacity, for any contract, debt or engage- ment of said Asylum after the full amount of their stock is paid in. 9. The indebtedness of this Asylum shall not at any time exceed an amount equal to fifty per cent of the capital paid in; and if the indebtedness of said Asylum shall at any time exceed such amount, the directors of said Asylum shall be personally and individually liable for such excess to the creditors of said Asylum. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 61 10. The Board of Directors shall make an annual report on the third A\Tednesday of January in each year, in detail, of their proceedings, expenditures, income and the affairs of said Asylum, A'erified by the affidavit of the President and Treasurer, Avhich report shall be filed in the office of the Sec- retary of State. 11. G. P. Parker, A. G. Phelps, E. A. Lambert, J. D. AYright, Jacob S. Aiiller, A. Stuart, James BroAvn, N. A. Prince, Jeremiah Terbell, C. C. North, Robert Embree, Alfred Bush, J. Edward Turner, Z. Pratt, AYashington Hunt. E. B. Alorgan, Noah A\Torrall, Henry Dubois, Robert L. Stevens and G. B. Alvord, shall constitute the first Board of Direct- ors, avIio shall hold their offices until the first Alondav of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, when the regular election shall take place, and they shall be Com- missioners, Avhose duty it shall be, Avithin five months after the passage of this act, at some suitable place or places in the city of New York, and such other places as they may determine, to open books to receiA^e subscriptions to the capital stock of said Asylum for the period of sixty days, or until the said capital stock shall be subscribed for. 12. This act shall continue in force for the period of fifty years, subject, however, to amendments, modifications and repeal by the legislature; and at the dissolution of said insti- tution, the Asylum and the grounds attached thereto shall be ceded to the State of New York, to be used by said State for some benevolent institution.* 13. Nothing herein contained shall be construed or held as intending to confer any banking or insurance privileges. 14. This act shall take effect immediately. * The amended charter, passed March 21st, 1861, for the establishing of free beds in said Asylum, repealed the twelfth section of this act. CHAPTER III. It was thought best to have the first public meeting in behalf of the Asylum as Avidely known and as thor- oughly understood as the time and occasion would alloAv; therefore the notice of the meeting Avas advertised in all the daily newspapers of Sew York city and of Brooklyn, and also in the religions journals, and notices of the proposed meeting Avere read in more than one hundred churches. As this Avork Avas a movement to reach the physical side of the inebriate, and to give him a better chance for his life under a pathological treatment of a hospital, it Avas thought judicious that all the clergymen of the Metropolitan district be called upon, and the object of the proposed meeting be fully explained. Of one hundred and twenty-tAvo clergymen thus seen, but fifteen declined to read the notice. The notice published in the papers, November 7th, 1855, read as follows: " Notice.—A public meeting at the BroadAvay Tabernacle is to be held this Wednesday eve- ning at 7^ o'clock, in behalf of the 'United States Ine- briate Asylum.' Addresses by Prof. R. D. Hitchcock, of the Union Theological Seminary, Rev. Henry W. Bellows, D. D., and others. The public are invited to attend. N. A. Prince, Sec." The folloAving addresses of Dr. BelloAvs and Prof. Hitchcock, delivered at that meeting, will give the reader an idea of the advanced vieAvs of the reverend gentlemen. (6-2) HENRY AV. BELLOAA7S. 64 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. ADDRESS OF REV. HENRY AY. BELLOAYS, D. D., DELIA'ERED AT THE BROADAVAY TABERNACLE, NOVEMBER 7TH, 1855, IX BEHALF OF THE UNITED STATES INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Ladies and Gentlemen :—Notwithstanding the immense and doubtless the greatly successful labors of the temperance cause, drunkenness, according to statistics that do not prob- ably reach more than half the dreadful truth, carries off fifty thousand citizens of the United States yearly—the exact total by these tables being, for the last year, fifty-eight thousand seven hundred and eleven, and for the last ten years, four hundred and seventy-eight thousand two hundred and thirty- nine. AYe do not doubt the real number to be a million. Consider the immense proclivity of our people to this Adce, when the prodigious efforts to stay it leave such a sum of it unprevented and uncured! The climatic, political, and moral causes of this terrible effect haA*e neATer yet received due consideration. There is. unquestionably, a poAverfully stimu- lating influence in our climate, Avhich renders the human con- stitution here extraordinarily excitable, and gives to intoxi- cating liquors a charm and a peril which they have nowhere else. Foreigners uniformly assert the less need, and the greater poAver, of alcoholic drinks here than in Europe. But worse than our climate, is the political and social atmosphere in which our free institutions and our neAv conditions place us. The same stimulus, Avhich makes our commercial and mechanical life of enterprise, and SAviftness, Avhich hurries along our railroads and steam-ships, and devours the wilder- ness, gives a tearfulness of competition, a recklessness of haste, a fever of the blood and the brain to our people, which makes them era vers of strong drinks—vast consumers of rich and exciting food, and of stimulating liquors. Almost all our successful citizens are taxed beyond their strength; are doing two or three men's work, and are tempted to inebriety by their exhaustion, and the necessity of keeping up their spirits to the mark. And then, of course, in this commercial stampede there are thousands of disappointed competitors in the race, men Aveaker in the poAver of enterprise, but often strongest in sweet and noble endowments, Avho are trampled beneath the hurrying crowd, and left to solace themselves with whatever they can find to cheer or droAvn their sorrows. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 65 The drunkenness of this country is almost a part of the national character and policy. It may be almost said to be the measure of the cerebral excitability and working temper of our people. The nation is drunk with youth, the new wine of political freedom and democratic ideas. It is a divine intoxication, having its great providential purpose, and its magnificent results; but it is attended by a fearful shadow- intemperance of speculation, intemperance of feeling, intem- perance of appetite. Licentiousness and drunkenness are the dreadful weeds that spring up in this hot-house of political and economic earnestness and activity. They wreathe around the trunks of the noble and fruit-bearing trees our tropical soil produces, their monstrous poison vines, and it is almost impossible to cut these down Avithout levelling the precious standards that uphold them. AYe have naturally enough supposed that education and religion would eradicate, or gradually anticipate and dis- place intemperance, Avith their own wholesome excitements. But if there be anything which our experience ought to teach us, it is, that drunkenness and licentiousness are vices Avhich thrive in educated and Christianized communities, at least as much as elseAvhere; for education and religion, in proportion to the hold they take of communities, are themselves stimu- lants, and communicate an earnestness, and create a Avaste of vital energy, Avhich, Avithout special efforts, Avill drive those Avho are under their influence to counteracting excite- ments. The connection between erotic and religious sensi- bility is too subtle a theme to enter on here. But in regard to the sway of intemperance in educated communities, com- pare Scotland with France, England AATith Italy, the United States Avith any country in the Avorld. The truth is, that intemperance is usually proportioned to the earnestness of a people's life, to the extent in Avhich any of their passions, high or low, are inflamed, and to the waste of their powers, whether in laAvful or unlawful pursuits, in virtuous or vicious callings. This makes its prevention and cure a subject requir- ing special as \Yell as general attention. It is not to be treated as a thing groAving exclusively out of moral, or exclusively out of physical causes; not wholly as connected Avith AYhat is bad, or Avith AYhat is good; not exclusively as a vice, nor 5 66 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. wholly as a misfortune. It is a fact, to be investigated in all its sources, and met in every shape and by every method. Education and religion must be depended on, because they not only tend to correct the evils Avhich they help to create, but all other evils through their light, and the moral power and divine sanctions that inhere in them; but education and religion have their o\Yn mistakes; and in this country, before intemperance can be brought Avithin tolerable limits, Ave have yet to learn from education and religion, the means of moderating the haste to be rich, the exclusive deA'otion to business, the ignorance of an attractive domestic and social life, the community of the old and the young in their amuse- ments, the extinction of our intense social ambition,—Avhich at present waste the nervous life, create horrible dyspepsia,, plant chronic excitability of all the functions of the body and soul, and make the seeds of drunkenness hereditary in the constitution of the people. The immensity of the cause of our national intemperance ought not to drhe us to despair; on the contrary it should excite in us a lively sympathy with any and all the means that are now employed to pre\Tent or to cure it. The efforts Avhich a quarter of a century have Avitnessed in this reforma- tion are almost unparallelled in dignity and importance. God knoAvs aa here Ave should have been without them. But all these efforts leave us with this vast amount of inebriety on our hands. And whatever success may attend the efforts at prevention, I think it cannot bedoubted that an immense sum of drunkenness Avill and must still be left to cure. It is unnecessary to describe the evil of drunkenness, either for its victim or those avIio suffer Avith him. AYe are unhappily too intimately acquainted with the dreadful Avrecks it occasions to make any description of its ruins important to this argument. A doA^e Avrithing in the talons of an eagle, a lamb in the folds of a serpent, is not so affecting a spectacle as a human soul in the poAver of intemperance. That horrible fate, before Avhich the heroes and heroines of the old classic tragedy succumbed, or that iron house of the Inquisition, moving its horrid Avails day by day an inch nearer to its caged victim, and in the end crushing Avith remorseless but protracted cruelty, are not too dreadful images of the poAver HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 67 of drunkenness. Hoay pitiful are the misfortunes—certainly as the crimes—of him on whom this leprosy has fastened! and for those with Avhom he is connected—his wife, his children, his parents. Is the old Alyzentian cruelty, which bound the loathsome corpse face to face with the living, more frightful than the fate of the drunkard's kindred and friends? But now, how has Society treated the drunkard? She has either let him alone or immured him in prisons and jails. She has been compelled to do the last for her OAvn preserva- tion ; for drunkenness is the matrix of crime and injury, the devourerof public wealth and safety, the serpent that tempts murder, and arson, and lust, and theft, and every other crime and vice, to its daily iniquity. But do Ave not do a serious violence to the moral sense of the community by this confound- ing of weakness with malignity, of vice with crime? Everybody knows and feels that a drunkard, though quite as dangerous as a murderer, and perhaps the cause of as much loss of life, is not deserving of a murderer's fate; that vice ought not to be treated as a crime. Every time a man suffers for crime committed in drunkenness the conscience and humanity of the public are shocked as much as though insanity was treated as crime, as it so long Avas. The enlightened con- science of the Avorld demanded the separation of insanity and crime; it noAV demands the separation of drunkenness and crime. They must both be restrained, but in distinct ways and for separate ends. Drunkenness needs to be restrained a thousand times as much as it is, but it never can be, so Ions: as the criminal police are its controllers, and the jail its house of correction. So long it Avill lie corroding in the homes of the land, eating out the A'itals of families; AA'ives, sisters,chil- dren, Avearing out their hearts in concealing, protecting, and restraining it. Alas! the sum of misery which the unprovided means of society for the confinement and correction of drunkenness occasions is past all telling. There is hardly a man or woman present that does not know this from experi- ence they Avould shudder to relate. I have seen the day when lAvould haA^e giA-en the results of a year's labor for a month's appropriate shelter and skillful care of an inebriate friend. And such friends as one sees hopelessly in the grasp of this vice! the gifted, the tender-hearted, the simple-minded, the 68 HISTORY X. Y. STATE IXEBRIATE ASYLUM. otherwise pure and good. And they to be thrown into the society of felons, of thieves and murderers! It is enough to crush the heart to think of it. I see that this Asylum, by the language of its charter,* provides only for the poor and destitute inebriate, and in that I think its idea too limited. All inebriates are poor and destitute, and their friends helpless and alike in despair, Avith- out the means of confining them in an appropriate and remedial institution. As well might we make a distinction in our hospitals for the small-pox. Let the rich be made to pay whatever you please for the use of this institution, but pro\ide for their use of it bv the original charter. THERE IS NOT A RICH PARENT IN NEAY YORK THAT CAN NOT BETTER AFFORD TO DROP HIS CARRIAGE THAN FAIL TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE ENDOAYAIENT OF AN ASYLUM IN AYHICH HIS OAYN CHILDREN AIAY FIND THEIR RUIN AA7ERTED. Of course the poor and destitute deserve our first consideration; but drunkenness is not con- fined to class, nor are its horrible evils worse in one than in another station. If Ave turn from the relief to human misery Avhich our Asylum considered as the inebriate's hospital, Avould afford, to the probable cure of the disease Avhich pathological treatment Avould affect, Ave find new and still greater reasons for the establishment of this Asylum. Drunkenness is a disease, even when it is a moral Aveakness and a vice. It so disorders the normal condition of the stomach and the brain, that human beings in its power are no longer open to the ordinary motives AA'hich affect the Avill and the conscience. The sincerest desire and effort to a void and conquer the temptation to drink is, in many cases, as vain as by a moral effort to prevent the return of an ague fit. AYhole families are by constitutional inherit- ance liable to its tyranny; and some indhiduals areas much and as innocentlyitsAictimsasthough they fell bythecholera or the plague. Noav this frightful disea se is a t least a s hopeful as insanity if taken in time. Alarge percentage of those who go to asylums in time recover from insanity; and medical * The projectors of this Asylum designed it for all classes—the rich as well as the poor. HISTORY X. Y. STATE IXEBRIATE ASYLUM. 69 science tells us that probably fifty per cent of the inebriates would be cured in appropriate hospitals for drunkenness. Hoav few under the dominion of this appetite knoAV Iioav to treat themselves for it, or think of treating themselves as sick men? They are as much under a delusion as their friends Avhen they think it a purely moral disorder, wholly within the control of the will. The brain and the stomach, with which it has this peculiar sympathy, must be restored to a normal condition before the will is free to folloAv the motives of self- control. V\e need an asylum, if itAvere only for the profound study of drunkenness. If medicine owed to hospitals, and psychol- ogy to insane asylums, some of their greatest triumphs, Avhat might not the cure of drunkenness OAve to an asylum in which inebriety had a thorough, large, scientific, and prac- tical investigation, with reference to its origin and cure? ROSAVELL D. HITCHCOCK. HISTORY X. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 71 ADDRESS OF PROF. ROSWKLL D. HITCHCOCK, D. D., LL. D., DE- LIVERED AT THE BROADWAY TABERNACLE, NOV. 7TH, 1855, IN BEHALF OF THE UNITED STATES INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Ladies and Gentlemen :—There is something of a con- crast between a quiet Theological Lecture Room and this public assembly; and, to a man of recluse and scholastic habits, the contrast is somewhat appalling too. But the religion, Avhose history it is my vocation to teach, is pre-emi- nently a religion of philanthropic instincts and energies. Its birth song Avas not merely "Glory to God in the heaAens," but "Peace on earth and good AYill to men." Not as some of the manuscripts read and Kossuth Avould haA'e it "Peace on earth to men of good AYill," but peace and good will to men as they are, destitute enough of good Avill themselves, but desperately in need of it from others. But not only is Christianity philanthrophic: there is. in truth, no other philanthropy than the Christian. Athens had no retreat for the sick, and Rome had none, except the Temples of Esculapius, Avhere priests were the only physic- ians, and their patients Avere cured by magic, if cured at all. Even Judaism was poorly furnished Avith human appliances. The poor man Avho fell among thieA'es and got so roughly handled, in going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, had to be carried to a caravanserai, and depended on an accidental charity for the payment of his bills. Hospitals, infirmaries, asylums, are all of a Christian parentage. The apostate Julian thought he discoA^ered in them one of the main props of the despised Galilean faith. They are certainly amongst the clearest tokens of its divinity. Christendom has now a, vast multitude of these public charities; only less various than the forms of suffering Avhich haA-e called and are calling for relief. Comparing nations, Europe in this regard has some advantage of us; since there is, in so many cases the munificence of governments, Avhile here it is the munificence of individuals. Avhich undertakes these enterprises of mercy. And yet. considering the circum- stances of our case. Ave have no occasion to be ashamed of what has been accomplished among us. AAxe have no occa- sion to be ashamed of the country at large; none certainly 72 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. for this commercial metropolis of the country, Avhose insti- rutions of charity, in number and efficiency, are nobly com- mensurate in some good degree with her abundant and mar- vellous prosperity. To-night a neAV charity comes knocking at our doors', new to us, new to Christendom. It has no precedent to plead, no model to follow. It is proposed by a subscription of fifty or a hundred thousand dollars, to provide an asylum AYhere the poor inebriates, robbed of their manhood by intoxica- ting drinks, may stand some better chance than they noAV possess of having that manhood restored to them. There is one kind of courage in neAY and great undertak- ings Avhich cuts itself off in advance from the possibility of retreat; as the desperate Cortez sank his ships on the Alexi- can coast. There is another more sober courage, which never takes a risk Avithout having first provided against the worst; as the prudent AA^ellington made his stand at AYater- loo Avith an open road to the Belgian Capital behind him. So this new enterprise offers itself to the public, Avith all due modesty as an experiment. If it fails, the provisions of its charter are such that no great loss of money will be incurred. There is no expensive machinery to be 3acrificed. The direc- tors ask no pay for their services, and Avould commit neither themselves nor their patrons to any extraATagant expendi- tures. At first it is proposed not to erect, but if possible to lease the necessary buildings. And then the buildings when erected are pledged irrevocably to beneA^olent uses. AYhen they cease to serve the end for Avhich they are designed, if they ever do, then the State steps in to deA'ote them to some other charitable end. In any eAent the money invested is solemnly guaranteed to philanthrophy; if not in this form, then in some other. But while the originators of this enterprise thus put it forward modestly as an experiment, they Avish it to be under- stood that their oavii convictions are very decided, and their own hopes Y-ery sanguine, in the matter. It is plain to them that there is a gap here in the noble array of our Christian charities; that Avhile almost e\^ery other form of human infirmity and Avretchedness has some beneArolent instrumen- tality adjusted to it. some remedial appliance provided for it, HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 73 this one of drunkenness has been let alone in despair—let alone, I mean, as a pathological phenomenon, to be patho- logically dealt with. Intemperance in the use of intoxicating drinks has a Nat- ural History greatly needing to be written. It is character- istically a vice of the Occident rather than the Orient; of the higher latitudes rather than the loAYer; a vice peculiarly of the Scandinavian and Teutonic races; a vice pre-eminently of our oayii continent and our OAvn republic. At the opening of the present century, Avhen we had barely started in our career of constitutional government, it began to be apprehended that Ave Avere rapidly becoming a nation of drunkards. Patriotism Avas alarmed, Christian philanthropy aroused, and vigorous measures inaugurated to arrest and eradicate the groAving evil. For some forty years now has the tocsin sounded, and the struggle been maintained. First, the intem- perate use of liquors was interdicted. Then distilled liquors altogether, in am' degree, were interdicted. Then fermented liquors. And so the siege Avas carried on by successive paral- lels, crowding closer and closer to the hostile batteries, until noAV at last legislation is invoked to storm the Alalakoff and take the toAvn. AA nile there are those avIio tell us that these instrumentalities are all alike impotent; that drunkenness is a vice, Avhich has its roots in human depravity, which only the Gospel, as dispensed and administered by the Church of Christ, is able to cope Avith. Into these debates and questionings this enterprise of the Inebriate Asylum does not enter. It indulges in no partizan- ship, either religious, moral, or political. It commits itself neither- to the old pledge, the new pledge, or no pledge at all. It goes in exclusively neither for moral suasion nor for legal suasion. It simply assumes, AYhat no one Avill deny, that intemperance is a gigantic evil amongst us, not subdued as yet, nor likely to be, by any forces we have marshaled against it; the pest of individuals, of families, of communities, the direct occasion of the greater part of our pauperism, of the greater part of our social sufferings, and crimes against the peace and good order of society. And, assuming this, it offers a remedial and recuperative instrumentality, in Avhich we may all unite, with the hope, nay, with the full assurance, of being 74 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. able to do something, if not to annihilate, at least sensibly to abate the mischief. WeAvould cajole the public into no scheme of moral quackery. AYe advertise no sovereign panacea. AA'e simply confront the evil as it meets us on the street, as it inundates our court rooms, and overfloAVs our prisons; and Ave say to all: come, here is a nuisance. Avhich may surely be abated; here are taxes, Avhich may surely be diminished ; here are crimes, Avhich may surely be prevented; here are men, hoay as good as lost to society, lost, Ave may say, to heaven, ayIio may surely be reclaimed and saYed. AA'e can not hope to save them all, any more than Ave can hope Avholly to dry up any other fountain of human Avoe; but hundreds and thou- sands of men may be saved, Avhile all that is sacred either in Patriotism, in Humanity, or in Religion, counsels and com- mands us to make the attempt. Fledges may still be circu- lated, papers edited, and books Avritten. Eloquent lecturers may still itinerate the land from one end of it to the other; and the Alaine LaAV, if that shall seem Avise and good, be car- ried in triumph from capital to capital. Let each man choose his OAvn connections and his OAvn instrumentality, doing his utmost in his OAvnwa3T. AYe debate perplexed questions Avith no man. But here is something to be done; not a question in ethics, not a speculation, but a Avork, and a Avork in Avhich Ave may all engage. This then is our first argument for the Inebriate Asylum. It raises no embittering questions, comes into conflict Avith no man's crotchets, asks no man to inter- mit or slacken any other instrumentality; but it offers a common ground, w hereon Ave all of us may stand, and hope to accomplish something of undeniable and solid good. Daily there reel in our streets intoxicated men, boisterous and violent, endangering the peace of society in public places, carrying a curse to dependent families; daily the gripe of the laAV tightens upon them and drags them to answer for their evil deeds. AYhat shall be done AAith these men? As things noAvarewe haAre nothing for them but our prisons. The man Avho has been guilty only of a glass too much, goes in Avith felons, and takes the chance of coming out again a felon him- self. In any case, Ave must foot his bills, providing him with food and clothing. Is it not better, immeasurably better. both for him, for his family, and for ourselves, to give him an HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 75 asylum rather than a cell ? AAliich is better—I put it to Chris- tian feeling, nay, I put it to common sense—which is better, the iron wristlets or the silken cord ? Another argument for this enterprise is, that the mode of treatment proposed is eminently rational. It contemplates drunkenness under a threefold aspect: as a disease, as an insanity, and as a sin; and would deal Avith it accordingly. That drunkenness is each and all of these admits of* no ques- tion. Heating the blood, it poisons the whole body. It unsettles the nervous system, staggers the brain, and mad- dens the intellect. AboA'e all, it degrades the sentiments, smothers conscience, and leads the way to every form of moral evil. It folloAvs, as a matter of course, that the rem- edy, to be effecth^e, must be as many-sided as the evil it com- bats. If the bane be threefold, so also must be the antidote. And as for the order, reason not less than Scripture, suggests, first, that which is rational, then that which is spiritual—the sound body in order to a sound mind. The inebriate enters the asylum, first of all, as a diseased man. It is not enough to stop his rations of liquid fire. The coats of his stomach are inflamed, perhaps spotted Avith ulcers; the entire circulation is deranged and feverish. He needs counteractive and soothing medicines as much as a poisoned man needs them. The red and purple blossoms of intemperance call for medical treatment as loudly as the Avhite blossoms of the small-pox. The yelloAV fever itself is not more a feA'er than the raging of a drunkard's thirst. His first, best friend, is a Avise and skillful physician ; his first necessity, not a lecture, but a prescription. And the course of treatment must be more or less protracted, according to the iiiA'eteracy of the disease. A drunkard's medicine. I remember, Avas invented some years ago, largely compounded, perhaps, of ipecac, or some other nauseating drug. But it accomplished no great good. There Avas needed, what we noAV propose, the protracted and stringent discipline of a hospital. Along Avith this treatment for the body, there is needed also a treatment for the mind. Forms of industry should be appointed, the avails of Avhich shall go toAvards the support of a dependent family. The drunkard should thus beencour- 76 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. aged to recover himself to domestic and social duty, his children's cry for bread piercing the Avails of his retreat. Books also should be supplied, and works of art, and inno- cent recreations, to wake up within him a sense of his finer manhood, and so fortify him against the importunity of his baser appetites. And for this, too, time is required; not an exhortation, which is for an hour, but a gymnasium, which is for weeks and months. But, crowning all, there is need of a truly religious treat- ment; no one man's creed, wherein it differs from the creed of other men equally wise and good, but those grand elements of truth and duty, Avhich underlie all good creeds, because they underlie all men's necessities. Conscience must be aroused from its stupid sleep, and that fear of God implanted, Avhich is the beginning, not merely of all Avisdom, but of all safety. AVins once poisoned may be poisoned anew. Appe- tites once inflamed are ahvays inflammable. Tastes once grovelling may again deteriorate. Alere pride of character once broken doAvn may be forever but a bruised reed. No- Avhere is there entire safety for a man but in the grace of God, Avhich takes him up into the highest sphere of his manhood and makes him truly spiritual. AAithout this grace the man Avho has been dragged up out of the mire may AvalloAv in it again; Avith this grace the Ethiopian can change his skin, and the leopard his spots. At no point is there perfect safety for any man one step beloAv this Christian summit of character. Here there is safety. There dwelleth one amongst us, an august Presence walking Avith us the courses of our moral history, Avhose language Avas and is: "I give unto them eter- nal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand." To this lofty height of character, to this sublime guardianship, AvouklAA'e bring the unfortunate and shattered inebriate. Such is the method of treatment proposed by this new candidate for the favor of a humane and Christian public. It is clearly a rational treatment, applying itself to the Avhole length and breadth of the evil to be remedied. It takes in hand the drunkard's body to purge it of its poisoned blood. It takes in hand his mind, to purge it of its madness. It takes in hand his moral nature, to purge it of its sin. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 11 This instrumentality Avill not do everything; but some- thing will it do, and much, to check this frightful Avaste of manhood now Aveltering along our streets; much pauperism will it forestall; much crime; much suffering. To many an injured and fainting woman's heart will it give back the hus- band of her youth; battered, but no longer debauched. To many a Avorse than orphaned child will it restore a bountiful and protecting father; weakened but no longer a wreck. And many a crown may Ave hope it Avill add to the multitude which shall finally be cast before the throne. Now shall that enterprise Avhich seems so rational, and promise's so much of solid good, be suffered to perish either in its birth, or in its cradle? There is wealth enough in New- York and to spare, for any and every object Avhich can sIioav itself to be really needed. There is also intelligence enough, and Christian character enough to ensure to each object a candid hearing. AYe must therefore believe that this enter- prise will go on, and take its place amongst the most con- spicuous and useful of our public charities. It was hoped that the efforts of the friends of the proposed hospital combined with the A'oice of both press and clergy soliciting the attention of the public to a meeting in behalf of this pioneer work, would have insured a larger gathering than eighty-two persons to lis- ten to the eloquent words of Dr. Bellows and Prof. Hitch- cock. At that early day in the history of this enter- prise the Hospital Avas not in the least degree under- stood or appreciated, and hence but few persons were drawn towards its cause. The following letter from Prof. Hitchcock will better describe the meeting at the Broadway Tabernacle than the writer can hope to do: Union Theological Seminary, \ New York, Sept. 22nd. 1858./ Dr. Turner, My Dear Sir.;—Your kind letter, inviting me to take part in the services atBinghamton on the24th, Avas duly received. I acknowledge the validity of your claim upon me, and 78 HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. should myself be only too happy to contrast Avhat you Avill see and hear at Binghamton with what you and I saw and heard at the Broadway Tabernacle, now nearly three years ago. Then, a handful of people; noAv, a croAvd. Then, the chill of a general apathy; now, the cheer of popular favor and the largest expectations of good results. I congratulate you on this great change. You have done the Avork, or, at least, have inspired others to do it; and I knoAV of no man Avho Avould dream of disputing the laurels with you. My own opinion of the desirableness of such an institu- tion as this, Avhose corner-stone you are now about to lay, remains unchanged. To hundreds upon hundreds of poor victims of appetite whose Avills have become enslaA^ed beyond all self-help, this retreat Avill prove a great mercy. It Avill help to do Avhat they Avould neATer do alone, and recover themselves to bodily and mental and moral soundness. I regret my inability to be Avith you at the laying of the corner-stone. Our term has so recently commenced that I do not feel myself at liberty to break in upon its routine. But you have my best Avishes, now and eA'er. Yours, very truly, Roswell D. Hitchcock. During the three years, 1851-57, in which Air. John D. Wright served as President of the Corporation, not a dollar was paid out of its funds for services or travel- ing expenses of any director, officer, clerk, or agent of the Institution. Each director accepted his directorship on condition that his services and traveling expenses were to be gratuitous. More than two-thirds of its capi- tal stock was raised by the founder before the amended charter was passed, and all of its capital stock was sub- scribed on the books of the " Lmited States Inebriate Asylum." The difficulties attending the labor of inter- esting the public in the neAV Hospital, was demonstrated by the fact that not a director in the board could secure a subscription to its capital stock. They themselves were all liberal subscribers, thus showing their confi- HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 79 dence in its future success. Five of them served in the Board tAvelve years. Owing to Mr. Wright's removal from the city to Duchess county in 1857, he thought it best for the Cor- poration to retire from its board and to resign his presi- dency. Eight years after, in 1S<>5, he visited Bingham- ton, and was the guest of the Hospital. He was pro- foundly interested in examining its beautiful and sub- stantial buildings. He frequently referred to the organ- ization of its Board; to the embarassments which fol- lowed it, and to the ridicule which was excited ao-ainst it; all of which was focussed upon its few faithful friends who bore the brunt of its battles and Avon its victories. "Little did I comprehend," he said, "the "necessity of the Inebriate Asylum when I was first "solicited to accept a directorship in its organization, or "little did I think that in my first visit to its wards I " should find among its patients the sons of my two " dearest friends. I well remember ten Years ago my "fruitless efforts to interest the fathers of these two "young men in this Hospital; they declined to sub- scribe to such a project for the reason that they did "not believe the Hospital would ever be built.11 In 1872, Air. Wright transferred his seven shares of stock to the founder, and in 1874 he subscribed ten dol- lars to the fund to rebuild the rear buildings destroyed by fire in 1869. His interest in this pioneer Avork neArer abated. At a meeting of the Board of directors of the "Sew York State Inebriate Asylum," held in the city of Sew York, at 97 Clinton Place, May 12th, 1837 at 2 p. u., the amended charter of the Corporation was read and accepted, and the folloAving officers Avere elected for the ensuing year: Hon. Benj. F. Butler, President; Hon. 80 HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Wm. T. McCoun, Vice-President; William E. Dodge, Treasurer; Sewel A. Prince, Registrar; and J. Edward Turner, Corresponding Secretary. It was voted by the meeting that each member of the Board be authorized and requested to solicit and for- ward subscriptions to the Treasurer. At President But- ler's suggestion it was also voted that the Secretary be instructed to prepare a pocket subscription book, con- taining a prospectus, to be sent to each member of the Board? He thought that the Board comprising forty members would have an influence in securing a large amount of subscriptions to the Asylum fund, thus reliev- ing somewhat the writer in his subscription work, (the latter neither at this time nor subsequently solicited any trustee to raise a dollar either of its capital or any form of loan.) These books were sent to each trustee, and they acknowledged the same by letter, expressing them- selves confident of interesting their friends. At the annual meeting of the Board on June 17th, 1858, the trustees individually reported that they had labored faithfully in soliciting subscriptions among their friends, and that they had failed to raise one dollar. It may be well to state that the little books were all returned to the Secretary and filed away among the records of the Institution as part of its history. Mr. Butler, on return- ing his book, stated that he found it impossible to inter- est his friends in the Asylum. The thousand and one objections raised against the enterprise could not be ansAvered or removed by him, his knoAvledge of the sub- ject being too limited to enter upon such a discussion as the importance of the subject demanded. He was con- vinced that if the Hospital were ever built the pro- jector was the only man who could accomplish it. HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 81 Vice-President McCoun stated that what could be accomplished by the projector in interesting the world in behalf of the Institution could not be done in the least manner by himself. His words Avere, " This Avork can be well done by the man who has given his life to it, but it can never be consummated by a board of inex- perienced trustees." Chancellor Wahvorth wrote the Secretary that he had utterly failed in procuring subscriptions. This ex- perience of the thirty nine trustees of 1858 was no excep- tion to the rule, but a condition holding good through- out the history of the Hospital. At this meeting, in the election of the Standing Committees of the Board, it Avas suggested by Vice- President McCoun, and voted by the Board, that the writer be placed on each committee that his knoAvledge of the wants of each department might be the govern- ing policy of the Asylum. The subsequent history of the Institution during Judge McCoun's faithful services as a trustee and as the able Vice-President of the Cor- poration for eleven years, proved to himself as Avell as to eA7ery trustee that his plan Avas a judicious one. It not only proved that it saved discordant action among its trustees, but it relieved the Board of a large amount of detailed labor; and, in fact, made each member feel as pleasantly in his relations to the Institution as if he had been an invited guest in the house of a generous host. So one could better appreciate the suggestion of our A^enerable friend than the Avriter, or could under stand better the delicate task of pressing men into a ser- vice which was altogether neAv, Avith no precedent to fol- Ioav, and no model to imitate. Vice-President McCoun visited the Asylum in 1865, and at that time expressed himself as much pleased 6 82 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. with the result of the individual efforts of the founder, and stated his intention to endoAV a free bed in the Hos- pital ; and that his old friend A. T. Stewart had ex- pressed to him a great interest in the Institution, and his intention at some future day to endow several free beds. Mr. SteAvart had already contributed five hun- dred dollars in goods toward furnishing rooms in its wards. After the fraudulent transfer of the property to the State Mr. Stewart lost all interest in the Asylum. At the age of eighty-tAVO Judge McCoun visited the Asylum four times within seven months and travelled more than tAvo thousand miles to attend its trustee meet- ings. He Avas the constant and faithful friend of the enterprise from the year 1846, when he first became in- terested in the work, up to the year of his death. The Committee on Location, comprising the follow- ing gentlemen, Chancellor Wahvorth, ex-Gov. Hunt, Judge Balcom and J. Edward Turner, met at Saratoga, April 4th, 1858, and, at that meeting, appointed the founder a committee of one to secure offers of land as a donation for the site of said Asylum, and report upon the same to the chairman of the committee. The city of Binghamton having offered two hundred and fifty-two acres of the most valuable and beautiful land within its limits, and superior to any offered elsewhere in the State, the board of trustees, at its meeting in the city of New York, May 19th, 1858, accepted the offer as the site of the NeAV York State Inebriate Asylum. The ex- cavation for the foundation of the western building of the Asylum was commenced on June 17th, 1858, the masonry on July 15th, and its corner stone was laid on September 24th of the same year. CHAPTER IV. The ceremonies of laying the corner stone of the New York State Inebriate Asylum took place at Bing- hamton on Friday, September 24, 1858. The order of proceedings Avas as folloAvs : 1. Prayer, by Rev. Dr. Beach, of Binghamton. 2. Address of Hon. John L. Lewis, Jr. 3. Address by the President of the Corporation, Hon. Benj. F. Butler. 4. Address by John AV. Francis, M. I)., LL. D. 5. Address by Rev. Henry W. Bellows, D. D. 6. Remarks of Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson. 7. Remarks of Hon. Edward Everett. 8. Poem, by Alfred B. Street. 9. Benediction, by Newell A. Prince. ADDRESS OF THE HON. JOHN L. LEAVIS, JR., GRAND MASTER OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. Brethren and Friends:—The new and. noble enterprise Avhich the heart of beneArolence planned, and the hand of mercy has urged upon the munificence of the State, has noAV been formally inducted. The implements of practical archi- tecture have been applied, and the foundation stone has been laid according to the rules of that ancient science; but we, Avho stand here, the operative laborers of the hive, may be indulged, if in our true character as speculative masons we f look forward to the consummation, and also hail the laying e of the cap stone. It has been deemed the pro\Tince of the Free Masons in the civilized countries of the earth, for the past rolling centuries, to inaugurate such enterprises as this, and in the quaint old style of the craft, approve the begin- ning, and craAre blessings on the end. There is no mysticism (83) 84 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. in such an act. The square, the level, and the plumb, haA^e each to us their instructive and speaking lessons, and their "language has literally gone throughout the earth, and their words to the end of the world." I need not here repeat them, for they have grown as familiar as the lessons of child- hood. The promptings of duty have brought us to this spot, and with the heartfelt thanks Ave owe to the friends of the asylum for permitting us as a Fraternity to bear a hum- ble part in this great undertaking, are mingled cordial sym- pathies in its objects. The Avatchwords of the Free Mason are Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth; and Avhat enterprise of the day embodies more of these virtues than that Avhich this edifice is designed to effect? Looking, then, beyond the scenes of the present hour, its imposing array, its thronging multitude, and its aspects of joy and gladness, our prophetic fancy depicts a stately structure, not like most of the fanes of an Eastern Avorld, devoted to the outward formalities of religion, not a temple of Mammon, not the abode of cold and haughty grandeur, but dedicated to the noble purposes of rescuing man from the abject slavery of his own appetites and passions; to assist him to cast off a debasing sensual thraldom, and to stand erect once more among his felloAvs in the pride and dig- nity of the manhood he had abjured. AYe, Avho seek to shel- ter the Avidow from the storms of life, and to stay and direct the future steps of orphanage, feel our heart's warmest emo- tions drawn out in behalf of the more than childless mother, the Avorse than Avidowed Avife, and the crushed heart of child- hood, whose great sorroAV it is, that it is not fatherless. If our great State could rescue humanity from Avandering amid the tombs, bereft of reason, it Avas worthy of a civilized and Christian Government to erect an asylum, Avhere the self-des- troying victim of intemperance could be restored to reason and usefulness, once more clothed in his right mind, and to bring light and joy and peace again to the family circle. My brethren, the scenes of this instructing ceremonial should not be Avithout their deep practical teachings to 3Tou. We make Temperance one of the perfect points of entrance into our brotherhood; let it be to us more than a mere spec- HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 85 ulative idea; something more than a feature in our ritual. If the tools of our craft be each of them a teacher and a preacher of moral truth, let not the repetition of those truths cause our ears to grow so dull of hearing as to con- vey no impulse to the soul; and God grant that no one of you, my brethren, may so far forget the lessons he has learned beside our humble altars as to be a future inmate Avithin these Avails—a driveling, self-abandoned recipient of this noble charity. Acting upon the square, Avalking by the plumb, and treading Avith careful footsteps upon the level of time toward the coming eternity, let our lhes and conduct be our cham- pions against the breath of reproach and the tongue of slan- der. Sectarian divisions haATe never yet divided us, political strife among us has never invaded our quiet retreat; do not let the allurements of pleasure or the impulses of passion mar the beautiful proportions of our great spiritual temple, Avhich the storms of Avorldly contention have hitherto as- sailed in A*ain. So shall it be Avhen Ave lie doAvn upon the bed of death, and kind hands shall lay us aAvay in the grave, that our sur- viving brethren may bend over us and say, the "corner- stone of his moral and Masonic edifice was Avell laid and found to be true, tried and trusty, and he has become fitted as a living stone for that spiritual building, that house not made Avith hands, eternal in the heavens." BENJAMIN F. BUTLER. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 87 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS, BY HON. BENJAMIN F. BUTLER, OF NEW YORK, PRESIDENT OF THE CORPORATION. Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow-Citizens and Friends:—The nature and design, the necessity and importance of the Avork this day begun by the New York State Inebriate Asylum, Avill be fully explained by gentlemen qualified to address you, and Avhom I shall presently have the honor to introduce to this assembly. I shall not encroach upon their proArince, but shall pro- ceed at once to perform the duty to which I am officially called. This is, first, to express, in behalf of the Board of Trustees, to the citizens of Binghamton, Avhose enlightened and munificent liberality has bestowed on us the ample domain Avithin Avliose inclosure we have now come together, our sincere and most hearty thanks for this noble offering. It gives us all that Ave need, and more than Ave could have ventured to expect—a site for our buildings, elevated, airy, and conspicuous, yet easily accessible; near, and yet suffi- ciently retired from, a large and flourishing toAvn, seated at the confluence of beautiful rivers, and connected by canal and railroads with every part of the State, and especially Avith its chief centres of trade and population—land happily adapted for gardens, walks, and farming purposes, with a right to Avater from perennial springs in adjoining premises, affording an abundant supply, both for ornament and use, of this invaluable element; and to fill the measure of our advan- tages, a landscape on every side, of wide extent and surpass- ing loveliness, combining, in harmonious variety, hill and dale, rivers, valleys, forests and mountain-tops, with the habitations of man and the noblest creations of his inventive power. For this solid and most acceptable proof of their philanthropy, we repeat our thanks to the citizens of Bing- hamton. I am also to make, in behalf of the Trustees, to our friends of the Masonic Fraternity, who have assisted on this occa- sion, our acknowledgements for their valuable aid and for their sympathy Avith our object. It only remains that I should declare, as I noAV most gladly do, that the stone just laid in your presence is the corner-stone of the building to be erected by the corporation 88 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, for the purposes of its charter. May the structure Avhich is to rise from this foundation be built and kept by Him, Avithout whose help and benediction all human endeaArors are A'ain and valueless. May sound judgment and discretion, faithfulness and zeal, sympathy and kindness, be richly given to all who from time to time shall rule or manage the institution, and more espe- cially to those under Avhose professional treatment and control the inmates shall be placed. Here may that peculiar form of human frailty and suffer- ing and sorroAV, to whose relief it Avill be dedicated, find a sheltering and secure retreat; and may peace and order, wisdom and Ioac, grace and consolation, ever dAvell within its Avails. By such kindly and renovating influences may those who shall resort to it be encouraged to enter and to delight in the path of reason, temperance, and duty; beconfirmed in every good purpose; be redeemed from the bondage of evil habits; and be made, for all future time, strong, steadfast and victorious. By skillful and appropriate treatment, by communion with nature in that garniture of beauty and magnificence in which she is here arrayed, by manly and invigorating exercise and labor: by quiet and refreshing studies, by new habits of sobriety and self-control, and by the supporting grace of God, may the Aveak be strengthened, the desponding comforted, the fallen lifted up, the morally lost and dead be found and made alive again. RecoA^ered of their maladies and restored to themselves, may they carry with them, from this house of healing, such soundness of body and of mind, as shall fit them for assuming a right and useful place in the domestic circle and in the communities to which they belong—some to shine again as luminaries in the constellations from which they may have fallen; others to become sources and centres of incalculable good to their fami- lies and friends; and each—even the humblest—to give to some stricken but loving heart the purest of earthly joys— that of receiving again, safe and sound, one Avho had been given up as hopelessly estranged from the path of usefulness, and wholly lost to the sweet charities of life. The work of mercy we begin to-day has been conceived, as AA-e humbly hope, in the very spirit of Him avIio came to heal the broken- HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 89 hearted, and avIio Avent about doing good. God grant to us, for His sake, to see the fulfillment of our wishes and endear- ments, in the restoration of many—bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh—now the victims of a condition the saddest and most deplorable, to the duties, the dignities, and hopes of rational, immortal, heaven-descended and heaven-aspiring men! Air. Butler resumed his seat amid loud applause. The president then introduced to the Assembly Dr. John W. Francis, of New York, who delivered the fol- lowing address, on the objects and necessities of the institution: JOHN WAKEFIELD FRANCIS. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 91 OPENING ADDRESS— HY JOHN AV. FRANCIS, M. D., LL. D. Gentlemen:—I return you my sincere thanks for the honor you have assigned me in the exercises of this day, and for the favorable reception I have met. You all know that I present myself before you, on this occasion, rather at your solicita- tion than from my own choice. Resistance proving unavail- ing, I am here with you, and trust that, however imperfectly the duty committed to me may he discharged, you will bear in recollection that my ardent hopes arc cherished for the success of your noble undertaking, and that I shall neglect no proper measure for the furtherance of your great design. A half-century or more, has repeatedly placed me in peculiar circumstances, but never until this time have I been aAvak- ened to higher responsibilities. Avhen contemplating the A'ast movement now entered upon for the benefit of humanity, and the elevation of our race. Minds matured by the exper- ience of practical life, philosophers imbued Avith the Avisdom of rich culture, divines Avho have enriched the principles of religious faith by the potent example of good works, schol- ars whose closet elaborations have excited emotions of a Avide philanthrophy, and the eminent members of the liberal pro- fessions of every calling, have all, all coalesced, as one body. to organize a plan Avorthy so illustrious a group of individ- ualities, and which, in its issues, is destined to constitute an era in the progress of the social relationship of man. You Avill tolerate me, when I affirm, before so A'ast and en- lightened an assembly, that the glory of a nation does not depend solely upon the multitude of its people, nor upon the richness of its soil, the mildness of its climate, or its wide do- main; neither is it to be inferred from Avealth appropriated to the arts, or to the refinements of taste. Blessings like these we indeed recognize, and can appreciate. There is a still higher aim, there are other attainments to be secured, if we would ennoble those faculties Avhich a beneficent Creator has endowed us with ; if Ave would elevate man to his proper and inherent dignity; if Ave Avould awaken that knowledge which teaches us Ave are not born for ourselves alone; but that our existence is a divine gift; that our physical and mental powers are bestowed for wisest ends; that the obliga- 92 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. tions of man to man are reciprocal, and that our talents are not to be Avasted on ignoble and umvorthy objects. Those mysterious powers and faculties Avhich Heaven has Arouch- safed for our needs, and Avhich give to man his pre-eminence in creation, by a wise law, are the immediate agents from which spring up our physical wants while sojourners here; and through which, indeed, our highest spiritual edification is at length realized. The due observance of the laws of life is our imperathe duty, and to become proficients in the ful- filment of these behests, is the prerogative granted us by our Maker. To rear up that fabric, therefore, so divinely con- structed, to cultivate its development, to guard it against those annoyances Avhich might impair its strength and mar its usefulness, during its allotted duration, are the sacred duties enjoined upon us. A responsible mission, you Avill admit. Reflections like these, or of a kindred nature, must have had their weight on the minds of the beneA^olent and patriotic individuals Avho originated the institution, the corner-stone of Avhich is this day adjusted in its appropriate spot. To give the fullest demonstration of the fact, that theAvholesome leaven Avhich Avorked out so many good results among our primiti\re settlers, in earlier days, has not abated of its excel- lence, by amalgamation, in our cosmopolitan State; to add one other to the long list of great charities Avhich signalize New York, is the cause of the gathering together of this vast assembly; and the exclushe purposes Avhich its benefactors design to fulfill, give it a significance and importance equally remarkable. You can anticipate me in the declaration that such vieAvs of life, the nature of Avhich I have thus briefly stated, have for several years been entertained by the original projectors of this hospital, and animated their exertions. It Avas by no means too bold an assumption on their part, to argue that inebriety is the deadliest foe to man's health of body and integrity of intellect; that a general distrust of the capacity of such an individual, to discharge faithfully the offices of life, is a perpetual obstacle to confidence, none will dispute; and that he only could profitably fulfill the responsibilities of HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 93 a member of the common fraternity of mankind, avIio is actually free from the Aaee of intemperance. The A'enerable Hippocratic precept, embalmed in the classical satire of Juvenal, touching the proper condition of a faithful agent in the business of life had not escaped the recollection of our philanthropic projectors: Mens sana in corpore sano. I have more or less implied that the health of a nation is the first and paramount condition to be aimed at by a Avise legislation. However high may be the estimate Ave form of the blessings of education, eA'en the privileges secured to the cultivated intellect are blighted Avhen trammeled by moral and physical infirmities. The obstacles which knoAvledge encounters Avhen thus associated, forfeit its Avonted majesty and reduce its possessor beloAvthe level of posith'e ignorance; and Avhat avails the parchment of the most erudite scholar, Avhen he is lost to the dignity of moral Avorth. The unfortu- nate victim himself is unable to fathom the depths of his own disgrace, orconceive the impotency of all his learning. More- over the imvard reproaches of such a sufferer not merely give manifestations often irrational to the beholder, but demon- strations of remorse inexplicable to all rules of reason. A dominant cause Avhose insidious operations Avere felt and knoAvn to besoextensi\'e and pernicious, could not fail in its melancholy displays to strike the philanthropic bosom with dismay and sorrow; a common enemy, thus armed with the Aveapons of destruction, demanded provision for the assailed, to meet the exigencies of the times; thinking men, Avith deep anxieties had long looked forAvard for some meas- ure of relief Avhen necessity Avould urge certain means of a practical character- to abate the sufferings of the people; and thanks to Almighty God, the keen sagacity of our disinter- ested founders has called in requisition the safe, the abiding, the effective plan best calculated to circumscribe the direful evil, and liberate society from the burden of its disgrace and misery. The annals of medical literature have long borne testi- mony to the ravages which inebriation has inflicted on the world, and forensic enactments have struggled Avith a thou- 94 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. sand devices to mitigate the evil and guard the interests of society. Different nations have at different times promul- gated laAvs more or less lenient or severe: sometimes drunk- enness might be looked upon as a mere matter of police, and at other periods summoning legal proA'isions indicating the magnitude of the crime. The moral phases of the calamity seem to haA-e been too generally overlooked. The appalling extent of intemperance in the earlier part of the present centuiw, both in foreign lands and in our OAvn country, gaA'e origin to temperance societies. Casual appeals to reason had left no impression on the mind, and invecthes Avere pronounced the offspring of sinister motiAres: the pride of indhidual opinion frowned doAvn the counsels of the delib- erate head. Individual efforts at reform consequently failed, and association Avas adopted. This great measure, the off- spring of American sagacity, originated in 1826, and it is due to truth, for services rendered, to say that to the able writ- ings and unwearied labors of the venerable Dr. Lyman Beecher, Ave are under greater obligations for this benignant project, than to any other individual, numerous and Aveighty as haATe been the co-laborers in the great cause. I can not at present attempt an account of these temperance associations, or notice the various methods adopted by them at different periods of their organization, whateA^er exception may be taken to errors of theory or its occasional mode of assertion. I think I shall have the concurrence of all, when I assert that a large amount of good to indiAiduals, to families, nay, to the republic at large, has been accomplished by them: their pledges have not been Avithout their use, and I fondly trust that the temperance advocates may not lessen their efforts in their godlike Avork, governed by a Avise, conservative principle, Avhich may enlarge their sphere of usefulness and accomplish their fundamental and laudable ends. Their literature has given them a Avide renown; while it has been ample, it has proved Avholesome in its nature and rich in illustration. The few and imperfect remarks which I have already made, will supersede any lengthened disquisition on the expe- diency of the measures proposed to be adopted this day. Profitable as in many respects it might be, to allude still fur- ther to those latent sources of the evils Ave complain of it HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 95 would be presumptuous in me longer to detain you Avith expressions of regret at the enormous crimes and wide-spread sufferings Avhich intemperance has brought upon the land, or point out the difficulties and defects of our present therapeu- tical or remedial processes. The conflicting laAvs on the sub- ject, for the benefit of the social compact, bewilder philosophy, and too often set at naught the sober judgment of the wisest, when viewed with the express design to alleviate the commu- nity of the penalties of inebriety. The soundest of jurists have apprehended the greatest evils, Avhen drunkenness has been set up as a defense, or as a mitigation of crime. AVith the ancient Greeks, those avIio committed violations in law, while in a state of intoxication, Avere doomed to double pun- ishment; Avhile among us. in our OAvn day, we too often find the sadest misdeeds, the offspring of that degraded state, followed by no penalty Avhatever. From this uncertain state of legislation little benefit can follow, and the pestilence is still rife, with all our sanitary devices. A new condition, a radical change is demanded to bewrought among the people. If national character is not to be degraded into a proverb, a mighty reform in thought and in habit is to be effected, and man is to be regarded, not as a machine, but as a reflecting and responsible being. It may be asserted, without qualifica- tion, that the moral sentiment of the people is to be elevated. AYe must inculcate a detestation of the crime of the inebriate Avith an earnestness at least equal to the approbation Ave Avould bestow on the actions of the virtuous and the wise. The duty to punish offenses is always painful; to prevent them may be deemed neither invidious nor painful. In the latter case. Ave may often find reAvard in the acquiescence of him Avho acknoAvlcdges the benefit. We must feel, moreover, that man is too precious to be left to self-destruction, and every suggestion Avhich philosophy can make, every principle Avhich experience can teach, every motive which religion and humanity can awaken, is to be summoned to the regeneration. The wonderful age in Avhich Ave are permitted to live has been fertile in devices for man's benefit. His physical nature, his mental appetites, his creature comforts, all have excited the attention of the benevolent, the provident, and the wise; and our rank is still high among civilized nations, for the 96 HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. probity of our general and State governments, for their watchful care and parental wisdom to promote our common prosperity, and for the regard Avhich has been bestoAved on the poor, the illiterate, and the unfortunate, of every order, and of every clime. Well directed efforts have characterized our social proceedings in this era of liberal appropriations. Contributions from all quarters have floAved in, for the advancement of praiseworthy objects, and cheering results, both in public and private affairs, haAe croAvned our labors. But time engenders circumstances, and momentous occur- rences arise in the revolution of affairs; and, as if our condi- tion Avas e\rer to be progressive, light is constantly shedding its benignant rays Avith increased poAver and splendor, and unfolding to probationary man new A'ieAvs and striking phe- nomena but partially observed before, new principles, hitherto OA'erlooked, neAv problems for solution, new demands for the exercise of his talents, new stimuli for his nature, and new arguments for the extension of his philanthrophy. The laAvs of his nature1 render him capable of imbibing Avisdom Avith every revolving day, and his studies advance Avith his acqui- sitions. Progress, progress, is the order of the day—excel- sior is the standard. The casual expedient of a former time may have become, and Avisely too, a fixed and permanent appliance; the suggestion of an indifferent moment may have matured principles of enduring efficacy; Avhat Avas once pronounced visionary, may have secured to itself, in the evolution of time, a great reality. This is the course of dis- covery; it is no more nor less than the development of art, the history of philosophy—and it will ever render the calm surveyor of human affairs, and the unprejudiced observer, the deliberate judge and the deferential critic. The hopeful spirit is strengthened, Avhile contemplating the parable of the mustard seed, with the changes and the results which the progress of time achieves. Everybody is acquainted with the fact, Iioav Franklin, by his kite, demonstrated the identity of lightning and electricity. When that ingenious man left his study, and set out for the banks of the Schuylkill, to divine the great problem, I dare say. individual stragglers might have been seen on the road, making merry at his fanciful notions. But his child-like HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 97 apparatus de\reloped Avhat is noAv universally called the science of electricity. He thus became the founder and the illustrator of an entire and distinct branch of knoAvledge; and the annals of philosophy record not such another name associated Avith so vast a demonstration. Electricity has become the expositor of untold mysteries; it has penetrated into the hidden nature of the physical world; it has called into active agency the dormant principles of matter; it has developed the secrets of creation; and not a neAv law in dis- covery is made manifest, Avithout its agency: by it, the sun- beam has become the mighty artist; by it, the telegraph is made an intellectual medium for unhrersal man. Yes! 'tis but as yesterday, that the people of a Aast continent were offering up to heaven shouts of joy, and laudations in testi- mony to the noble, the mighty, the magical achievement of this great and scientific age, its latest performance having its legitimate origin from the childish plaything, Dr. Franklin's kite! Are Ave not to derive wisdom from the past ? A thought in its progress has enlightened the Avorld ! The amber Avitch has stretched her wings across the broad Atlantic; and Avhat Avas once confined Avithin a thimble, expands itself in uniting two hemispheres. Such are the gifts of philosophy to mor- tals ; such are the fruits of that education Avhich researches into the laAvs of creation yield, and Avhich so instructively vindicate the Avisdom of the Omnipotent. If these are the reAvards of physical investigation, let me ask, are the higher and more intricate branches of philosoph- ical culture less prolific of blessings ? Is the study of that Avonderful microcosm, man, to be looked upon Avith less defer- ence than Ave bestoAV upon material things ? Is the presenta- tion of that link in the chain of being, by which the continu- ance of the species is perpetuated, a subject of indifference? Is the integrity of that organization, Avhich secures the intel- lectual faculties in their diA'ine harmony, a secondary object; and are we to remain listless in our inquiries into those causes Avhich disturb and ruin its healthy condition, Avhich substitute insanity and idiocy for its controlling poAvers? Are there no lessons of Avisdom to be taught from that change. Avliich converts the sober into the drunken, happi- ness into misery; which gives to delusion the Avildest fancies, 98 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. and transforms the lovely and attractive into the hideous and repulsive; that abrogates reason Avith her boasted preroga- tives? Are Ave forbidden to scrutinize those causes Avhich, in their insidious advancement, lead the temporal and the tran- sient into the fixed and permanent; which, by a multiplying poAver in their successive operations, work a change which, at first considered as a momentary delirium, is finally settled into an absolute insanity? The dethroned mind is a study beyond the classics of the schoolmen. And oh, its hereditary entail! In short, there is no controverting this pregnant declaration, that the primary origin or predisposition, the actual essence of this calamity, is often traceable to this latent cause, and matter itself is thus rendered more or less subordinate to mental impulse and nervous irritability. Special instances of this fact have fallen under the cogniz- ance of every practical physician; and the Scripture truth, that the sins of the parent are visited on the offspring, holds good Avith the corruptions of inebriety, as Avith other infirmi- ties of our human nature. This is no fancy sketch ;* the ethical history of our coun- try presents the agonizing truth in broadest illustration. The people at large know it, and acknowledge it. The holy expositor, at his sacred desk, feels it. The forensic physiolo- gist is taxed with labored cogitation by it. As a medical man, I might fill an ample page in confirmation, at which philanthropy might weep, and despair usurp the hopes of the most tolerant humanist. I am aAvare that the age itself is in part amenable for the sufferings Avhich individuals endure, and for the extension of that calamity Ave so much lament. Intemperance is at our very threshold; pernicious habits are contagious, and man is an imitative animal. Hoav multi- form the agents that have wrought this gloomy state; what a mine of iniquity haA7e we to explore to comprehend their respective bearings, even in individual examples. The spirit of enterprise is potent and pervading: profitable or munifi- cent results wait, at least in prospective, upon every meas- ure. The vital forces of our race are taxed beyond their nor- mal equilibrium; body and mind have comparatively little repose; there is no holiday for the soul; the stimulus of gain, or other vanity, creates inordinate pulsations in every heart. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 99 Its seductive poAver leads captive the Ioav and the vulgar, the high and the refined; it beats at every breast. Do we won- der that the expended energies demand supplies; temptation is thus doubly powerful; hence, then, the artificial excitement which in so many ways renders life a forced state of exist- ence. The enticing draught, Avhether from the golden goblet or the pewter mug, finds favor Avith every order of society— the peasant and the ruler, the mechanic, the artist, and he who aims to dignify the Avalks of professional life. More- over, besides all these, Ave have the concurring influences of a climate characterized by extremes of temperature, a people of a susceptible and nervous temperament; Ave have un- bounded freedom of action; parental restraint is scarcely known; and, more unfortunate still, Ave suffer the penalty of unsettled legislation, and inoperative and lax laAvs. But not to enlarge this catalogue of direful circum- stances, which clearly do the Avork of misery, haA'e Ave not reasons of the most binding and imperative nature, to unite as one man, to quicken our zeal in the execution of the great Avork noAv contemplated, to perfect that design Avhich has so long absorbed your care, and summoned to the profoundest deliberation the highest faculties of your nature? Surely, with the present elevated state of medical science, it is not arrogating too much to cherish the belief that public opin- ion Avill not be diminished in its confidence, and that public morals, and the social habits of the times, will be improved by your munificent measures. Citizens of the State of NeAv Y^ork! This mighty gather- ing is demonstrative of the deep interest the public feel in the transactions noAv occurring before you. On this day is laid the foundation of a neAV temple, devoted to science and humanity; and it has been decided to build up and sustain, for present, and for after time, a hospital, for the exclusive benefit of a class of sufferers, the most pitiable of all patients; to rear a charity for the intemperate—most significantly called an asylum for inebriates. God speed the work! It is a proud event in my life to be present Avith you on this occa- sion. Your undertaking is colossal; it is a vast conception ; it is an index of the signs of the times; and you have only done justice to the present elevated condition of psychological 100 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. knowledge, and the capacity of the age, by your noble move- ments. It is no compliment to say, that this town of Bing- hamton, by its great endowment, has evinced a noble patri- otism. The site selected for your charity, is such as taste approves and judgment confirms, as singularly calculated for the salutary ends you have in view. Its rural attributes give it additional charms for mental recreation and physical improvement. Your architectural plans possess an adapta- tion Avhich the best experience in hygienic affairs announces to be of great excellence. Their extent betokens an advantage- ous retreat for the enfeebled inmate and the harrowed soul. I see in them no niggardly expedients to cripple, in any manner, the sublime purposes you contemplate. These you may con- sider strong terms, in acknowledgement of the labors already performed; but hoAV are they multiplied, when the almost incredible declaration is proclaimed, that the inebriate hos- pital is a new minister in the service of man: its commission is original; it has no example, either in the Old, or in the New World; it has no precedent to follow; it triumphs in the novelty of its great intent; it is primary in an exalted work —in an exclusive purpose—to secure the inebriate from degra- dation and death, and restore to society, to families, to rela- tives and friends, their hopeless members. With such a theme before me, dare I rest satisfied with a subdued language? In the whole range of useful undertakings, has humanity eA*er assumed a more exalted work? Does a doubt float in the minds of any who now hear me, that such an issue may flow from this new hospital; that the great changes of place, and scenery, and habits of life, the radical alterations determined upon in the discipline of the hospital itself, the novel, impressive, and delectable associa- tions which may be formed by congenial intercourse, by books, by the judicious treatment of body and mind, which medical science enjoins, under the direction of approved phy- sicians, will possess a poAA^er adequate to the accomplishment of such blessed results ? Y^ours is no tentative measure, in its minute details; common sense, and practical principles, come in as controlling agents in your behalf. Let me, then, tell the doubter , that professional skill and adjuvants, such as 1 have enumerated, have saved many victims to drunkenness HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 101 from an untimely grave, and restored faculties of the highest order, once prostrate, to the exercise of their Avonted duties and usefulness. Is it uncharitable to consider inebriety a disease, often of the worst form that afflicts man? Every physician of ex- perience Avill tell you of his OAvn sufferings and trials in encountering cases of that agonizing character, and of the discouragements he has met with, lest the prospect of that sad termination of the disorder, in insanity and idiocy might be realized. It is the close resemblance \vhich Inebriety bears to Madness—it is the approximation of the infirmity to insanity itself, often in its mildest forms, Avhich has hitherto proved the great barrier to our successful treatment. But this vast difficulty, great as it is, has lessened with quotidian experience in modern times, and is iioav actually the anchor of our hope, amid the perplexities Avhich once encompassed us. AYhat was the condition and treatment of the insane some fifty years ago, both abroad and at home, at the per- iod at which Avas established our first mad-house, under the charge of Dr. Archibald Bruce, on the hospital grounds in Broadway? The near relation of psychology and physiology was then wholly disregarded. The influence of functional life was hardly noticed. At that day, the lunatic was looked upon Avith horror, and as irrecoverably lost to himself and to the Avorld. This, hoAvever Avas but the adoption of the common practice of enlightened Europe at that period. How limited Avas our art concerning the mind, and its operations in a diseased state! How indiscriminate were our nosologi- cal distinctions, as to causes and effects in mental disorders —how sluggish Avas inquiry into constitutional peculiarities, heredi tary influences, inter-marriages, and too often concealed agencies operated upon by habits, temperament, and the like! The blockhead and the child of genius Avere gazed upon with like apathy, through the same mirror. With such over- sights, do Ave marvel that the straight-jacket constituted the pharmacopoeia; and is it too much to say, that the remedial treatment of that period must have often been as mad as the patient ? Let us reverse the picture, and see Avhat has been the reform effected during the generation just passed. The great 102 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. amelioration in the treatment of the insane commenced under the sagacious Pinel, of Paris, at the Bicetre, and at the Retreat at York, in England, under the direction of Samuel Tuke, by the introduction of the moral management. The details of the system are too long for enumeration here. The A'ast abuses Avhich had crept into the lunatic asylums of Great Britain, called for Parliamentary inquiry; and in 1815- 16, the fruits of their labors were made knoAvn—the public attention Avas engrossed on the subject. It \vas my good luck, Avhile a A'isitor abroad at that time, personally to sur- vey all the prominent institutions devoted to insanity in the United Kingdom, and those of Holland, Belgium, and Paris. I could add to the testimony of the Committee's Report con- firmatory matter, from actual inspection. The discipline and treatment in many of the institutions Avere degrading to humanity, and a sad comment on the pathological doctrines of the day. The everlasting night Avhich encompassed the afflicted lunatic, and the bolts, and bars, and manacles, which he endured, evinced little science of the disease, and still less of the method of cure. But knoAvledge has at length winged her way even into the intricacies of the human mind. The dark and noisome cell has been converted into the attractive parlor, and the spacious hall. Hygienic principles haA'e rejected the loathsome arrangements suggested by ignorance and indifference; seclusion is adopted but in rare cases; everything is noAv substituted to produce a change of thought, break up morbid continuity, and lead to dhersion of mind; occupation and amusements are devised, in place of listlessness; light, and air, and exercise admitted into the room of sequestered idleness and brooding melancholy. Old associations are broken up; old things done away, and all things, as far as practicable, made neAv. The disordered state of the brain and the sensitive nerves are furnished with appropriate appliances, and a materia medica employed, with the cautious inferences of diagnosis and pathological study. No longer is a special day set apart for this or that class of heroic remedies, to harass the vitals of the unfortunate inmate. Tuesday is not appropriated for emetics, nor Friday to cathartics, as I Avas informed Avas pursued at Bethlehem, according to astrological science, I inferred. Nor is the HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 103 patient subjected to the severe flagellation which George III. received, at the earnest request of his consulting physician, Dr. Willis. The aged monarch never forgot those cruel stripes, nor could he ever after permit Willis to be in his presence. AA^e are indebted to Dr. Rush for the disclosure of this remarkable fact; it Avas long concealed, by co\Tert obli- gations. Those manacles, and ponderous chains (Avhich, by the by, Avere hea\uer in Holland than I saw elseAvhere), whose clanging sounds seem even noAv to reverberate in my ears, are stricken off, and the lunatic rejoices in the habiliments of a man. Let all praise be given to Pinel, to Pritchard, BurroAvs, Esquirol, Connelly, Ray, and others, AA'ho have so successfully studied the philosophy of mind, and so happily alleviated its hallucinations! The earliest movements abroad of the Reform-practice on insanity Avere soon comprehended by the prominent men of NeAv York. The philanthropic Thomas Eddy and De AYitt Clinton Avere early possessed of the leading facts, and these public Avorthies were Avell supported by those unimpeachable citizens of the City of New York, Matthew Clarkson, Jona- than Goodhue, Robert BoAvne, Isaac Collins, Samuel AA^ood, and others, of like Avorth. I have the best reasons to knoAv hoAv assiduously Thomas Eddy, in particular, maintained an active correspondence on the great subject, with the'excellent Samuel Tuke, of York, Avith AAalliam Roscoe, of Liverpool, and Patrick Colquhoun, of London. The noble grant of the State, for the support of the Ncav York Hospital, and the Bloomingdale Asylum for the In- sane, had just been secured by legislative enactment, and nothing could have been more timely than the intelligence from abroad on Lunacy. The Bloomingdale Asylum took its rise with the leading improvements; the moral manage- ment, or treatment, Avas carried out, and New YTork thus secured the honor of being the first of the States to illustrate the benefits of the great innovation. Justice to the beneA^o- lence of the American character, demands that it be recorded, that, in this country, the mere personal security of maniacal patients, by chains and manacles, Avas comparathey rarely pressed into service. Indeed, the Avhole number of mortals 104 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM.v afflicted Avith insanity, throughout the Union, had not prob- ably, in the aggregate, greatly exceeded, in the Aveight of their iron fetters, that stated of the memorable case of Nor- ris, by Haslam, of Bethlehem Hospital. The cell of Norris, Avith its peculiar furniture, seemed to me to appear more like the shop of Yulcan, than as the apartment of an afflicted patient. Let me put the question, before I close, Avith the sincerity which its importance demands. If such be the results Avhich modern discovery and experience have Avrought in the man- agement and treatment of insanity in general, haA'e Ave not strong and cheering evidence to infer, that that particular form of the disease which the projected Asylum for Inebriates contemplates to admit as its inmates, may be disciplined with equal success. A thousand causes can readily be speci- fied for the origin of the thousand protean forms or types Avhich insanity may assume, and yet in the midst of so many difficulties, science has triumphed, and statistics haA*e an- nounced her conquests. Read the clinical reports of the Asy- lum at Utica, of the Bloomingdale, and of others in diffier- ent parts of the Union. AA'e may safely say the old system of practical torture is overthroAvn. The professors of the healing art have no reason to blush at this result. AAThat- ever praises Ave may bestoAv on the im-estigations of the metaphysician, the voice of* truth must aAvard the triumph to the recondite labors of modern medical science. The Hospital for Inebriates is to be appropriated exclu- sively to one class of inmates, and, although that class is a formidable one, the physician is not to be distracted in searching into the immediate cause; let the characteristics of the disorder vary however much, let it be called mania, or melancholia, inebriety, or mania-a-potu, delirium tremens, hallucination, or by any other name, the agent that has induced the calamity Ave recognize to be drunkenness or intemperance; and here is much knoAvledge for the prescri- ber, already at hand, to begin with. The predisposing or remote causes, and all else requisite to the full comprehen- sion of the individual case, will, of necessity, fall within his cognizance. The light that has been thrown, in our OAvn day, on the effects of inebriety, and its numerous morbid HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 105 manifestations, like the great principles Avhich modify mod- ern practice \vith other forms of mental disorder, strengthens the conviction that professional knoAvledge of the subject is advancing and enlarging its poAvers. It Avas suggested to me, as a suitable topic for this opening address, that 1 might t give a professional discourse on drunkenness, describe its f perversions of the intellectual faculties, its moral degrada- tion, and its ravages on organic life. Years ago I published, | in a treatise called Bacchus, the anatomy of drunkenness; and your primary projector of the Inebriate Asylum, your able coadjutor, Dr. Turner, has given us a tract of great value on the History and Pathology of the disease. The task, thus proposed, must haA^e proved oppressive, both to the speaker and to his hearers, however briefly performed. The phenomena of insanity in general, and those of mania- a-potu in particular, have much in common. If there be little in their inception, there is often much in their develop- ment. The experienced physician will often be, at first sight, perplexed by that strange and anomalous combination of symptoms, Avhich mark the direct influence of alcoholic stimuli on the vascular structure of the cerebral organ; and our sympathies are often aAvakened to the observance of a singular train of abnormal peculiarities: thus criminal ac- countability seems often to be set at naught, equally as in cases of other types of lunacy. Diseases of the understand- ing may arise from mental as Avell as from corporeal causes; diseases of mind may induce physical changes of body; and organic changes of body may be the source of disturbed manifestations of mind. Pathology unfolds these truths, the knife of the anatomist renders them palpable. It is a well-founded axiom in our science, that physical causes influence the moral faculties. The keen susceptibilities of that harp of a thousand strings often control the actions of organic life, Avhile the admitted fact is not to be gainsaid, that the feelings and functions of existence are modified by a departure from the normal condition. Amid most unsettled knowledge, Ave may safely infer that organic changes are more frequently found in the bodies of inebriates than in those Avhose lamentable end has proceeded from Avhat I may call idiopathic insanity. In the instances 106 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Avhich I haA-e made of post-mortem examinations of cada- vers of the intemperate (and my opportunities haA'e been ample, as medical Avitness in our courts), the ra\^ages of dis- ordered action haATe been displaA^ed far more extensively in the great organs of functional life, than are found in cases of mental derangement from other causes. I omit details: the brain, the heart, the lungs, the stomach, the lh^er, and kid- neys, are most vulnerable to the influence of alcoholic pota- tions, and it Avould be absurd to deny that the functional action of such organs broken up, Avould be otherwise than sadly detrimental to the profitable action of the cerebral mass. Old Mr. Fyfe told me he had Avitnessed, on the dissect- ing-table, the li\Ter of fifty pounds Aveight, in the case of a diseased East India captain; but this, it Avas frankly admit- ted, Avas a rare fact, even to the Edinburgh anatomist. I never encountered so formidable a liver; it was of size suffic- ient to create bile for an army; yet the probability is, that it secreted not a particle. On the other hand, it has been again and again noticed, that that potent organ, the lh'er, has degenerated into almost a nonenity, by a sort of secret com- bustion, if I may indulge in the use of such language, and that its normal poAvers have been brought to the same state of inefficiency, by contraction or scirrhus. It is impossible, at this time, to dAvell upon the morbid appearances effected by drunkenness. Every fibre, every tissue of the body, is subjected to its all-pervading influence. No part, hoAve\Ter, demonstrates its sad ravages more fre- quently than the brain. The knife of the dissector shows the changes here to be many, and most afflicting. Inflam- mation, and adhesions, and effusions, perhaps, are the com- monest forms of the altered state. The poison itself is often actually found in the ventricles of the brain, and upon the bony covering being remoA^ed, the exhalation of alcohol is strongly perceptible. Apply a lighted taper, and the process of combustion is in full force. This striking fact Avas first noticed by Dr. Cook, of London; but many have made the experiment with like results. Here, then, Ave have the brain on fire, saturated Avith the narcotic poison—and this I have seen in a subject, a habitual inebriate, twelve hours after his decease from an excessive debauch. As medical Avitness in HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 107 numerous cases of criminal trials in New York, I have borne testimony to the truth of these pathological facts derived from dissection, many of Avhich I have performed. Hoav Avonderfully does all this seem to corroborate the opinion of old Judge Dagget, of Connecticut: " There is no more nour- ishment in alcohol," quoth the A^enerable Judge, "than in a stroke of lightning." AYhat must be the peculiar condition of the intellectual faculties in those Avho become A'ictims of inebriation, can readily be prognosticated. The poet Cowper most patheti- cally exclaims: " O the fever of the mind! " he had reference to general insanity, or melancholia. AAThat language Avould the bard haAe used, to give a faithful description of the suf- ferings of the alcoholic brain ? The brain is the seat and throne of the insidious conqueror; and could it give utter- ance to its Avoes, no sorrow Avould be found of equal poign- ancy. So sad is the alteration of functional life in the inebriate, that none can form an accurate idea of the disturbed and irregular manifestations of the forlorn Adctim to alcohol, by description alone; they are to be Avitnessed, in order to reach the understanding. The adhesiveness of the intellectual poAv- ers is broken up—a solution of continuity of thought is the result. Memory is shattered at its very foundation; this mental degradation leads to an utter disregard of truth; and the lying faculty is an attribute that ever Avaits Avith proudest bearing upon intemperance. All this is easily accounted for: the moral sense is peiwerted ; returning con- sciousness leads to irascibility; the most dreadful acts are deemed by the deluded patient to be mere foibles; remorse may folloAV refutation, and lucky, indeed, is the case, if the disaster closes here. With the facts Avhich I haATe briefly stated, Ave are irresisti- bly led to the conclusion, that the disease of intemperance, like that of insanity, in its wide acceptance, is to be controlled and regulated largely by moral management, so great have been the advances in curathe measures obtained by the perse- vering labors of medical men. Both classes of sufferers Avere once treated in the same manner; and often, in formidable cases of each, opium administered, as in cholera, without 108 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. limitation. Improved therapeutical measures are noAv inter- posed, because neAV principles -determine a neAv and more enlightened practice. AATe are led to another conclusion, that it is our duty early to seize the inebriate, for the better secur- ity of his restoration, to apply those salutary principles in due season, and thus arrest the progress of organic changes, the great difficulty to encounter in chronic cases. Besides, we are ever to bear in mind, that no infirmity of our physical existence acquires by indulgence a greater proneness to repe- tition, and finally establishes a habit of deepest regret. But more than this: hoAvlost is that condition, Avhen the intellect- ual becomes subordinate to the material, and theAvill is com- pelled to yield its mastery to the all-conquering appetite! Is not such a degradation loAver than that of the beasts of the field? PreATenti\Te means, therefore, are our firmest security; and this hospital is largely to be regarded in that benignant system. It is not the spirit of innoATation that has in any wise prompted the language or the sentiment of this address. The industry, the ability, and the disinterestedness Avhich have been elicited in the performance of the great Avork before us, put at defiance all distrust as to purity of intention, directed by an honest desire to benefit society. Should any objection to a generous support of the contemplated organization derive countenance from the belief promulgated by some, that Ave have already an abundance of charities, hospitals, asylums, almshouses, and like establishments for the recep- tion of inebriates, it may be remarked that these institutions, Avith all their excellence, are not fit retreats for the class of sufferers you hope to benefit. And so well comprehended is this great practical fact, that, of late years, it has become a difficult business to obtain entrance for the victim to drunk- enness Avithin their Avails. The doors of these institutions have indeed been repeatedly closed against such inmates, from incompatibility Avith the execution of their expressed designs. At this I do not marvel. A specific object is the groundwork of all the efforts noAv called in requisition by your present operations—to create a neAv-born institution, characterized by an adaption peculiar in its kind, the results of an advancement in the science of humanity. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 109 The progress thus far made for securing the final resources for the erection of this asylum has, I am informed, been the Avork, principally of individual effort, generously applied, and the prompt support already advanced gives cheering hopes of ultimate success. A sound brain and a big heart haA'e been at Avork. Logical reasoning had awakened, years ago, in a noble breast, a broad and enlightened humanity, Avhich, in the exercise of its Avonted attributes, is destined to lead to an amelioration of the condition of civilization itself; and I think that mankind at large, so deeply interested in the measure, will, at no remote day, find pleasure in assigning to our devoted laborer—Dr. J. EdAvard Turner—the triumphs justly awarded to the disinterested philanthropist. There can be no doubt that the State will extend its poAv- erful hand to this institution, as she so liberally does to our other charities, and that the guardians of the public Avelfare Avill apportion to it such revenue as maybe adequate to your Avants. This Avould prove but an act of reciprocity honorable to all concerned. If the State stamps the vice, it thus fur- nishes the remedy. An institution, such as that noAv under consideration, speaks not in anger, but in pathetic tones of caution, bearing its solemn, perpetual witness, Avith "sIoav, unmoAung finger," from those iioavrising Avails, of the danger and calamity Avhich flesh is heir to. It is the light-house on the rock, provided with the means of restoration and safety to the shipAvrecked, but preserving uncounted thousands by its friendly beams of Avarning. It is apparent, hoAvever, that too many circumstances fa\Tor the projection and organization of this establishment, to entertain for a moment the idea that neglect at any time will ma.rk the action of our State authorities. The intellect- ual refinement of the age forbids the thought; the people at large are too much interested in its success; legislation can not become so short-sighted, as to look Avith coldness on the design; and public sentiment must OA*erpower adverse feel- ings, if perchance, such a miraculous interposition should unfortunately occur, against an at present universal acquies- cence. Free from political or party thraldom, exempt from the sectional prejudice of religious or sectarian orders, scarcely a conjecture can suprise us from any quarter that 110 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. this great innovation must fail of success. For my own part, if so humble an individual as myself may give utterance to the confidence Avhich pervades his bosom, I think the poAvers in\rested in your council, actuated by that forcible resolve Avhich characterized your first movement in this lofty enter- prise, Avill bear you omvards Avith accelerated energy to the consummation of your fondest hopes, and that all parties will become satisfied Avith the melloAved results of your saga- cious policy. I Avas peculiarly delighted, Avhen at our last general meeting of the Board, I found such unanimity of opinion in your able deliberations, such a united conviction of the importance of an asylum of the nature of that con- templated, that all felt the importance of the plan, that no diversity of sentiment Avas noticed as to the means summoned for its support, that a conspiring harmony in debate Avas auspicious of that destiny so ardently desired by all. There is already a gladness that reigns in the hearts of many avIio have heard of the organization of this hospital. I have received strong assurance from responsible quarters, that Avhat your wisdom and your forethought have devised, legis- lative bounty will countenance and preserve. You have reasoned the matter Avell, and the time of action has noAv arrived. From the scattered reports Avhich reach me, multi- tudes already seem to cry out Avith solicitude for the living Avaters of your contemplated Bethesda. May the great Avork proceed Avith all possible encourage- ment—may the present generation profit by your heroic efforts—may Ave indulge the pleasing hope that a new truth has been discovered for the benefit of society, that the Avork- ings of a new principle thus grounded, may receive the appro- bation of future judgment, and posterity bear record in heaven of the fruits of your voluntary zeal and enlightened wisdom. Dr. Francis was heard with marked attention, and was warmly applauded when he closed. The Kev. Henry W. Bellows, D. D., of New Y;ork, was now introduced to the audience by the president, and delivered the following address: HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Ill ADDRESS BY REV. HENRY AV. BELLOAVS, B. B. The beginnings of enterprises Avhich involve great inter- ests and important principles are ahvays impressive. The first of that Avhich is probably destined to have no last while the Avorld stands, must attract and fix the attention of all thoughtful persons. AATe are laying here the corner-stone, not merely of an edifice, but of a principle and a custom. An asylum for inebriates is a new thing under the sun. The arguments Avhich have brought this into existence, must rap- idly bring others; the obstacles which haATe been laboriously overcome here, must henceforth more easily yield elseAvhere; the principle conceded, the example set, the custom begun in this case, must inevitably, as we think, be accepted, until inebriate asjdums are as Avell understood, and as common institutions, in proportion to the amount of evil they have to deal Avith, as asylums for the insane, and for the blind and deaf. If so great a future, and such large results, belong to the step Ave are now taking, it is important to note dis- tinctly what are the neAv principles. Avhat the fresh con Auctions, inaugurated in the event Avhich brings us together to-day. It is not to be supposed that the movement which has ended in the establishment of this institution, hoAve\Ter much it may OAve to the strong convictions, the Avise conduct, the patient zeal, the indomitable perseverance, of Dr. Turner, whose claims on our gratitude and respect are so large, and so heartily recognized, is chiefly an impulse of his mind and heart. He does but represent, as his experience in collecting the funds upon Avhich you are proceeding to erect this edifice has convincingly taught him, a Avide-spread and deep-seated conviction of society at large. A far deeper, broader, and maturer sentiment, in respect to the necessity and the benefi- cence of such an institution, than its best and most hopeful advocates had calculated upon, is now proved to exist. And what we are giving voice to to-day, is not the sentiment of this enlightened town, Avhich, in giving the choicest ground Avithin its magnificent territory for the site of the first inebri- ate asylum, and thus forever identifying itself Avith a fruitful and exalted project, has richly provided for its future reputa- tion, as a community of mingled sagacity and benevolence, of noble public spirit, and intelligent self-interest; it is not 112 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. the sentiment of an eminent and philanthropic body of Trust- ees, Avhose children will read their names in the records of this day's work, as among their chief titles to memory and respect; it is not the sentiment of a small and devoted class of men, profoundly convinced of the necessity of this special enterprise, who haATe borne the brunt of its labor, encountered the odium of its novelty, ventured the risks of its failure, and Avho noAv peculiarly enjoy the proud satisfaction of seeing their faith, hope, and charity, substantiated by acts of legis- lative, municipal, and illustrious private encouragement, No; aahat Ave are giving voice to to-day, is the sentiment of the State of NeAv York, collected from the testimony of her four hundred chief lawyers, her four hundred chief ministers, her eight hundred chief physicians, her fifteen hundred leading merchants, and all her great functionaries on the Bench, and in the chairs of her most responsible offices! Perhaps no philanthropic or moral movement eA^er undertaken had, at its ATery start, such an endorsement as this. And I may safely say. that a principle or a policy, Avhich, in so short a time, Avithout partisan or excited appeal, independently of any system of public agitation or apparatus of popular effect, could command the countenance, support, and sympa- thy of the men Avhose names are enrolled as the stockholders of this Institution—a principle and a policy which thus has all the representatiA'e men of the Empire State for its indors- ersand friends—may be considered as an established principle, an established policy—has but to make its call in all other States, to be answered in the same way—has but to ask the support of the civilized Avorld in all other countries, to receive it; and may, therefore, be considered as already in possession of the confidence, and of the heart and hand of Christendom. AAliat, then, is the original but ripe principle Avhich this institution embodies; the new yet popular policy it inaugu- rates? Let us not, by confounding it with other good things of similar aspect, diminish the distinctness by magnifying the size of our idea, or by seizing claims on the pre-occupied grounds of other great and kindred interests and policies, forsake the impregnable fortress of its own limited but inde- pendent claims to originality. Interest in the intemperate, thank God, it did not remain for us to arouse. The evil of HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 113 drunkenness, the perils attending the use of alcoholic stimu- lants, have awakened the conscience, alarmed the tears, ani- mated themoral efforts,engaged thedevoted and continuous labors of our Avhole people for a quarter of a century. Our country, for thirty years past, has been giving, in almost every possible form, the liveliest testimonies to its sense of the ATast extent, the terrible ravages, the social and civil calamities, the moral and spiritual evils, of Intemper- ance. By legislative enactments and popular associations, through political parties and philanthropic appeals, by a machinery of inconceivable magnitude, universality, activity, and zeal—by the erection of Avhat may be considered almost a new social code—by the banding togethei- of the clergy of the country as one man in proclamation, denunciation, and warning of the evil—by private pledges and by Maine Law agitation, the people of this country, in its whole moral and religious portion—the people of this State, in its weighty and dignified majority—have given emphatic, continuous, united testimony,in forms that can never again be equaled, because never again required let us hope, to the public sense of. the Evils of Intemperance. The temperance associations, of every name and order, may be considered as having left nothing to be done, in the way of public expression, respecting the sway and the malig- nity of the vice of drunkenness. This institution assumes the existence of this evil, and takes for granted that all are agreed (whateA^er their dalliance Avith it may be), in acknoAvl- edging its extent and enormity. While deploring their inadequacy, it recognizes the vast importance, and blesses the precious influence of all the means employed in preventing, suppressing, and extinguishing it. It does not claim to be able to take the place of any of these preventiA'e or curative processes; it has no discouragement for them, no jealousy, no rivalry Avith them; on the contrary, nothing but the warmest encouragement, the heartiest sympathy, the liveliest and most friendly emulation. But—and herein is its peculiarity—it declares it to be the opinion of the thoughtful, observing, and philanthropic men of the State, that a very important percentage of the intemperance of the Avorld, the country, and the State, is 8 114 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. beyond the reach of any or all the means noAv employed to prevent, remedy, or restrain it; that it OAves its existence to constitutional causes, is perpetuated by morbid necessities, and propagated by physiological laws Avhich are Avholly beyond the reach of moral suasion, political restraint, or prhate control; in short, that inebriety, to an extent suffi- cient to create an unspeakable sum of personal and domestic misery, of social injury, and public crime, is a disease either produced by intemperance, and then perpetuating it, or pro- ducing intemperance, and then continuing it—a disease Avhich requires in the name of public policy, and demands in the name of Christian charity, medical treatment, and a hospi- tal—a disease so peculiar, obstinate, and distinct, so common, deplorable, and injurious, that it demands a hospital exclu- sively devoted to its observation, control, and treatment. Medical treatment—medical treatment in a hospital—medi- cal treatment in a hospital exclusively deA'oted to it—are the neAv features in the policy initiated so auspiciously to-day. To clear up the grounds of this policy, the friends of this movement Avish to draAv, from this time forth, a bold and challenging line of division, where none has yet been made, betAveen the intemperate and the inebriate—between intem- perance as a moral, and inebriety as a corporal disease: be- tAveen intemperance—a condition of body and mind result- ing from excess in the indulgence of natural appetites, the abuse of festiA'e habits, recklessness of principle, the loAre of evil company, fondness for pleasure and excitement, and im- patience of trouble, care, and sorrow—the ordinary and pre- vailing intemperance of society—intemperance, the excep- tional, occasional, or frequent vice of those still held respon- sible for their conduct, capable of self-control, open to argu- ment, to motives, and to reform—betAveen intemperance thus known and described, and inebriety—intemperance still, but now a disease, original or superinduced, caused by or caus- ing drunkenness—a disease native to the constitution, or cre- ated within it bv abuse—a disease, because an organic or functional derangement of the system, Avhich bears drunk- enness as its necessary floAver, as naturally as the ivy root bears poisonous leaATes. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 115 All the intemperance which arises from disease, they pro- pose, for convenience of moral nomenclature, the name Ine- briety. And inebriety thus pronounced a disease, they pro- pose uniformly to treat as a disease, in an Asylum. The merely intemperate, they pitifully and sadly leave in all the vast and Avretched company they constitute, to the watch and care of the moralists, to the ordinary civil and moral police of society, to the guardianship of parents, the Avarnings of religious guides, the efforts of the temperance associa- tions, and all the A~arious alliances for their rescue from the poAver of temptation, and from the fate predicted and pro- cured by their reckless ways, and thoughtless minds, and callous hearts. They knoAv the inadequacy of these defences and protections; but they know the insufficiency of all efforts wholly to control a vice whose roots are so deeply planted in the moral infirmities, the social ignorance, the imperfect moral and spiritual condition of our race—a vice which civi- lization, by developing means and opportunities for its indulgence faster than it develops moral apparatus for its control, makes the chief source of the crimes of society, Avith- out allowing us to hope, for a long time to come, for any- thing more than a steady but sIoav decline in its sway. But inebriety, Avholly inaccessible to the influences which Avarn, or protect, or save intemperance—inebriety, a disease, not of the will, or the heart, or the conscience, but of the stomach, the brain, and the intestines—a physical, not a moral disease —they propose to take out of the hands of the teachers, the moralists, and the law, and put into the hands of the doc- tors—of doctors specially trained to treat it, and Avith spe- cial means and opportunities of treating it—chief of which is the poAver to restrain and to confine it, for such a term as its due treatment may require. I am perfectly aware of the natural objections to this course, Avhich, at first thought, Avill arise in most minds; especially of the practical difficulties likely to be suggested in respect to the classification I haA*e offered. It may—it will be said, that intemperance is, in all cases, partly a habit and partly & disease—that, hoAvever originated, it tends in all cases to become a disease—and that physical and bodily dis- eases caused by voluntary excesses, must be cured by volun- 116 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. tary self-denials; that to allege that intemperance is a neces- sity of some bodily organizations—or that it is so often the result of automatic causes as to deseiwe and require to be taken out of the category of immoralities and placed among those of misfortunes—is to Aveaken the sense of personal responsibility in those liable to become its victims, and thus to take aAvay Avhat must ever be the grand check to its spread. 1 freely acknowledge the force of these objections; none can haA*e felt them more than the originators of this Institu- tion. It is because the evils the Inebriate Asylum cures are infinitely greater than the evils it may be thought to encour- age; it is in spite of its possible disadvantages, that the community have demanded it. AATe acknoAvledge the great practical difficulty of making the fundamental classification just insisted on; but the difficult, happily, is not the impossi- ble, and Ave are not to be daunted by difficulties, or Ave should have nothing to do Avith any noble and heroic undertaking. All the objections eA^er brought against this institution may be confessed in all their force, Avithout materially Aveak- ening the argument for an Inebriate Asylum. Thus, it is true, that intemperance is both a moral and a corporal dis- ease, in most cases. There are probably feAv cases in Avhich it is Avholly moral, or in Avhich it is wholly corporal. What Ave need to maintain is only this: That, alloAving it to be more moral than corporal, in the majority of cases, it is more cor- poral than moral in the rest: and that, Avhen and as long as the moral continues the exciting and perpetuating cause, it is to be treated morally: when and as long as the corporal continues the exciting and perpetuating cause, it is to be treated corporally. As a moral disease, it Avill have also cor- poral symptoms and effects, requiring, and Avithin the reach of, ordinary medical treatment and advice. But it must be then chiefly attacked at its moral root, with moral influences, Avhich do not preclude medical treatment. As a corporal disease, it Avill have also moral symptoms and effects, requir- ing moral treatment, Avithin the reach and application of its medical supervisors; but it must be chiefly attacked at its corporal root, with corporal methods and influences. Avhich do not preclude moral treatment. If it be ansAvered that HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 117 intemperance is as much one as the other, in many cases, let it be confessed that these cases may be indifferently treated with either method. If it be added that complexity and equivocation involve the cases of thousands of other intem- perate persons, Ave shall still have enough cases left, of the plain, unmistakable victims of hereditary and constitutional intemperance—enough, Avhich years ha\Te proved to be utterly beyond any moral help, to make an asylum an indispensable and most merciful proArision, whether of the State, or of pri- vate benevolence. • And hoav as to the moral effect of conceding that drunk- enness often originates in necessary and self-acting causes—a concession from Avhich much social injury is predicted—I remark that it can neA^er A\"eaken the sense of moral respon- sibility, anywhere, privately or publicly, to acknoAvledge any- thing that is true; and that there is not the least reason to fear, that to make provision for the rescue of the miserable victims of an hereditary or abnormal appetite for drink, Avill diminish in the least, in those conscious of the power and obligations of self-control, the disposition or the con- science to exercise them. Aa e might as Avell expect public schools for the indigent, to Aveaken the standard of private education among the wealthy; or asylums for the deaf and blind, to make the pos- sessors of perfect eyes and ears careless of their safety, and indifferent to their preservation; or humanity towards the aged and the suffering, to promote idleness and improvi- dence among the young and the healthy; or forcible re- straint for the violent, to destroy habits of self-control among the peaceable, as to imagine that asylums for inebri- ates will promote and increase drunkenness. Hospitals do not tempt men to break their limbs, for the sake of having them set Avithout cost; nor jails, to surrender their liberty, that they may enj03^ their shelter at public expense; nor doctors, to tamper with health, for the sake of being skill- fully cured ; nor will the confinement, the medical treatment, the labor, the restraints of this Asylum, add one attraction to the cup, nor subtract one fibre from the conscience. AVe have, indeed, never a right to ask the blasphemous question, Avhat the effect upon society is to be, of humane 118 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. and just measures. AA'e may trust that the effect of such measures Avill be good, and only good, from the very nature of things. Is there a class of inebriates—that is. of inborn drunkards, or of persons Avith such morbid proclivities to drink, as to be incapable of self-control in their present state? this is our only question! If there be, they are enti- tled to treatment neither as criminals, nor as sinners, but as sick and unfortunate persons; and society,morality, temper- ance, can derive nothing but advantage from treating them Avith common sense, justice, humanity, and skill. But our case is much stronger than this. It is not neces- sary to prove that the subjects of this Institution are inno- cent and merely unfortunate persons, to justify, on moral grounds, its establishment. Indeed, if I rightly apprehend the underlying sentiments which support this enterprise, it will be found that an important change in the Avhole feeling of the responsible classes of society, in respect to the treat- ment of the Aveak and erring, the vicious and guilty, is here expressed and emphasized—a change of sentiment, liable to misconstruction and abuse, but yet necessary, inevitable, and, Avith its proper discriminations, beneficent and thor- oughly Christian—a progress in the only direction that promises light and peace. Pity and protection, not only for the unfortunate, but also for the guilty, is the eATer-groAving policy, the ever-justified experience of modern philanthropy. And this occasion proArides an opportunity, and impera- tively calls for a brief but braA'e discussion of the radical principle of this policy, whose justification and discrimina- tion inAolve the most important and serious interests of social science. There is, then, I repeat, a broad and general policy set forth and blazoned by the establishment of the Inebriate Asylum; and that policy is pity and protection not only for the unfortunate, but for the guilty. Every obseiwing man must notice the great change going on in the public mind, quietly and slowly, but steadily and Avith no doubtful result. in regard to the treatment of Auce and crime. The old rule of an eye for an eye. and a tooth for a tooth, the only rule upon Avhich criminal law in the ruder states of society could be administered, and which has been the basis of penal jurisdic- HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 119 tion for ages, has in the light of the Gospel and of a more developed social experience, gradually fallen into extenshe suspicion as a principle, and undergonevery serious modifica- tions as a practice. The influence of external circumstances in the formation of character and habits; the effect of blood, birth, organization, temperament, early example, local influ- ence, public opinion, national customs, in determining indi- vidual fortunes and conduct; the great natural inequalities among men in respect of intellectual and moral poAvers and sensibilities, the force of their passions, their faculties of self- control and self-protection—these have gradually forced themselves as facts upon the notice of all students of Social Laws, in a Avay to modify greatly the simple conclusion that man being an accountable and responsible being, is to be held strictly accountable by his brother, as Avell as by his Maker, for all his actions; and that to stand in any. way between him and the consequences of his follies, vices, and crimes, is to Aveaken the natural principle of retribution, and to diminish the chances of hisaAvakeningand recovery under the influence of his sufferings. It may seem strange that Ave should haATe been so long coining to a conclusion, Avhich is almost self-eA7i- dent, and that Ave should hesitate and tremble at acknowl- edging it, even when Ave feel its truth. But it is an honorable testimony to man's consciousness of moral weakness, and to the strength of his moral aspiration, that in the absence of a discriminating moral philosophy betakes part against him- self, Avhen he apprehends that hisAvill may succumb before his circumstances, and charges himself Avith a responsibility that is infinite, that he may escape a fatalism that Avould place him among the brutes. Yet it is not necessary in the present state of moral development and mental philosophy, to rush into one extreme, to avoid another: to deny the force of cir- cumstances, that Ave may magnify the force of Avill; to refuse pity, lest Ave should weaken self-respect; and belie mercy, for fear of discrediting justice. Indeed, this stern legality is Jewish and Heathen, not Christian. All the warrant Ave need for the changed sentiment and policy of modern Christendom toAvard its vicious and criminal classes, ought to be found in the Gospel itself—the inauguration of the truth that mercy is better than justice, or, as I believe, Ave shall one day see our 120 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. way to phrase it, that mercy is an exactei- justice. Our blessed religion teaches us that God kneAvhoAvto make it safe to take men from under the laAvand put them under a dispen- sation of grace and pardon, and that what he commenced in his Son he intended we should complete in our Avhole Christian civilization. To treat men as sinners, and still as unfortunate and pitiable in proportion to their sins; to acknoAvledge their guilt, and yet make that very guilt a new reason for saving them from themselves and their othenvise inevitable fate— this is the example we have in our holy faith, and it is the light of all the progress and all the success society has eA*er had in the recovery of the erring and the lost. Let us leave it to the Jews to uphold the lex talionis; to the heathen to maintain the pitiless creed of a punitive system, which does not even seek the recovery of the offender, but only the satis- faction of justice. Christians recognize the good of the sinner, his restoration and recovery, as the final end of all retributive consequences, Avhether in the divine or human governments, and they Avill never believe that Avhat is for the real good of the sinner, can be for the disadvantage of society or the peril of Justice. Those consequences of folly and vice and crime which harden, degrade, stupefy, and unhumanize their subjects, hoAA'ever spontaneous and natural their opera- tion may be, and hoAver punitive and retributory their essence, ought never to be regarded as consequences fit to be left to their oavii Avorking. For they obliterate the moral and intel- lectual nature of man, and rapidly take their Aactims out of the sphere of the moral universe; they disqualify their sub- jects forevTen recognizing their oavii punishment, by annihilat- ing all sensibility to shame and all taste for virtue. Nor is there anything in the example of vice or crime, abandoned to itself, or vindiethTely treated, which educates the moral sense of the community, or deters from a similar career: for the sight of ferocious, coarse, and degraded humanity, however produced, is uniformly found to create a .vindictive disgust, to loAver the self-respect of those avIio contemplate it, and to tend to reduce to its oavii brutish level all Avho come in contact with it. The keepers of our prisons, in former times—I hope not in these latter ones—might serve to illustrate the truth of this assertion. HISTORY X Y. STATE IXEBRIATE ASYLUM. 121 One of the chief supports of the vindictive and laissez- faire policy, in regard to the treatment of the vicious, rests upon what iAvishmight be called only a popular, but is, I fear, also a scholastic and theoretical mistake—partaken of by the very leaders of society, and, perhaps, by none more than by the more liberal sects, and the more intelligent minds—a mis- take concerning the order in the development of human fac- ulties, and particularly of the moral faculty. The mistake is twofold: 1st,the conscience is assumed to be strongest at its very birth—an error due to the observed sensibility of that faculty at its origin—like an infant's eye, Avhose very tender- ness to light conies not of its strength, but itsAveakness; and 2d, the moral faculty, of all the faculties, is supposed to be least in need of experience, training, and growth. It Avill readily be seen how such an error Avould affect our notions of discipline and education ; hoAV it would set us upon a system of guarding, instead of cultivating the conscience; Iioav it Avould influence the severity of our judgments, and favor a retributiATe, rather than a protecting, a punitive, rather than an educational system, in the treatment of youthful folly and vice. Now, the truth is, man's conscience follows the rule of all his other faculties; is weakest in infancy ; other things being equal, groAvs Avith his growth, and strengthens Avith his strength. Moreover, it is just as dependent as his affections and his mind, upon education and training. AYhat are the instinctive affections, in reliableness, com]tared Avith the culti- vated affections? AAdiat the natural conscience, to the disci- plined one? There is no fatality in man that needs training more than his moral faculty ; none surer to go out, if left to itself; none, indeed, Avhich rewards care and attention like it, or Avhich is capable of being reared into so poAverful and vic- torious an attribute. Men are, therefore, to be regarded as moral beings in the providential process of manufacture, rather than as moral beings in a finished state, and on trial. It is not to try, but to develop, and train, and strengthen this wonderful and precious talent of the soul, along with our other powers, that God has put us in this world. If, then, Ave imagine that the moral faculty, with its sense of right and wrong, its feeling of the authority of right, and the rebellion 122 HISTORY X. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. of wrong, its fore-felt revvards of virtue, its foreboded penal- ties of vice, is so poAverfully and perfectly lodged in human beings at their birth, that they may be, and ought to be, left to experience its fruits Avithout interposition, and that all the personal, and social, and eternal consequences that flow from its abuse, are legitimate, just, politic for society, favorable to God's truth, and pleasing to his heart, Ave imagine Avhat is the A'erv opposite of the truth, and what must neutralize or per- A'ert all our efforts at a Christian civilization. The moral qualities, the sense and the practice of justice, the feeling and the obligation of right, the beauty and attractions of virtue, are to be regarded as the fruits, rather than the seeds of civil- ization ; as the effects, rather than the causes of social exist- ence; as the ends, rather than the beginnings of humanity. It is because of the precious and glorious capacity of becom- ing moral, civilized, and truly human creatures, rather than on account of any actual worth, or goodness, or poAver of conscience in human nature at its start, that Ave reverence and value human beings, in their original, or undeveloped state. Man is an educable, a civilizable, a moralizable, a Christianizable being, and Ave are compelled by prudence, and experience, and wisdom, to depend far more on Avhat, through our social system, and civilizing and Christian influences, Ave are able to make him, than on what he tends to become when left to himself. In the light of this undeniable, practical truth, it must appear clear that social improvement is an experimental interest; and that the science of dealing Avith men for their OAvn best good and happiness, is a science of experience, Avhich must not be sacrificed to abstract or ideal principles- call them by \vhat sacred name Ave will. It will not do for us to get up a metaphysical theory of morals, the center of AA-hich is the idea of merit, or desert, and sacrifice upon it the practical prospects of our felloAv-creatures. Show me how men can be made happier and better, in the highest mean- ing of those words; and if it is upon principles hitherto deemed false, I Avill pronounce them true. If mercy has more poAver to save, by softening and subduing, than justice has, by warning and punishing, then mercy is a better and more useful principle than justice. If interposition betAveen vice, HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 123 and the consequences of vice; crime, and the consequences of crime; folly, and the consequences of folly, prove, Avhen judic- iously made, a more successful means of rescuing men from moral ruin and social wreck, than the old plan of allowing these painful and debasing consequences to have their nat- ural Avay—then, practical Avisdom will not permit theoretical scruples to set aside such substantial benefits. And that such is the case, is the testimony of all carefully considered experience. The whole tendency of modern inquiry and effort, in the treatment of folly, vice, and crime, is to substitute kindness for severity, help for restraint, education for police, light for alarm, protection for punishment. The growing mildness of the prison code, like that of medical practice itself, shows us Iioav little good Ave are to expect from vindic- tive or exemplary punishments, Iioav little from severe and heroic practice. The mistake Avhich the advocates of the gentle protective policy—illustrated in the principle of this institution—make in the controversy with the timid and anxious supporters of the old system of strict retribution, exemplary punishment, and Avholesome fear, is this. Through want of poAver to explain Avhat they really feel, they alloAv themselves to seem less interested than their opponents in the support, and authority, and sacredness of the moral laAV, Avith all its infi- nitely important distinctions and consequences. Through inability to make themselves understood othenvise. they allow themselves to seem the friends of a material and fatal- istic philosphy, which attributes more poAver to circumstan- ces and organization, than to mind and soul. But both these not unnatural inferences are really baseless. It is for the sake of, and because of, the preciousness of man's moral nature, that, when Ave see it too Aveak for his physical nature, on account of the more rapid growth of the physical than of the moral in the infancy of being, Ave refuse to treat him as a wholly responsible being and so leave him to ruin ; that Ave hurry to treat him as sick and morally dead, that afterwards Ave may, at our leisure, really make him a responsible being, and so save him to the moral universe. And is it a fatalistic and material philosophy Avhich drives the friends of man's soul—themselves, through God's grace, in possession of 124 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. enlightened minds, disciplined wills, and vigorous consciences, thanks, it may be, to their oavii wise parents and Christian teachers—to come to the rescue of their less fortunate broth- ers, liable to be the victims of their oavii unpropitious organ- izations and conditions, and to interpose between them and otherwise inevitable ruin? Instead of materialism and fa- talism, here is free-Avill and spiritual power in the Avise, tri- umphing over circumstances and the drift of events in the foolish. True, this doctrine does not claim that the will is perfectly free in each and eATery man—that the soul is. at the start, and in every case, superior to the body. But it does assert that, characteristically, by intention and by destiny, the will is free, and the soul eminent ovTer the body, as over all things seen and tangible. It denies, it must be confessed, that modern doctrine of absolute and equal powers and capacities in all men—that irrational theory of individual- ity, Avhich disintegrates the race into its component parts, and makes each atom of humanity complete in itself, the center of the unherse, capable at once of all things Avhich any other is capable of, independent of all others in its edu- cation and its fate. Such a doctrine is as false to fact as it is arrogant, indocile, and unsocializing in sentiment. There is no truth to history, to feeling, to Christianity, or to staring modern experience, in it. The real truth teaches us, Avith the New Testament, that Ave are members one of another; that the human race is one body, in Avhich each individual has his part and place; that this body has eyes and ears, but also hands and feet; that parts of it represent the intellectual, parts the moral, parts the conscious, and parts the uncon- scious elements in its Avhole; that its judgment or Avisdom is not equally subdivided and scattered among the several parts, but dwells at different times in different portions that represent the Avisdom and judgment of the Avhole—iioav in races, iioav in nations, iioav in classes, sometimes in illustrious individuals—but that it dwells in these for the use, guidance, protection, and benefit of the Avhole; and that it is accord- ingly the duty of the enlightened, civilized, self-disciplined and self-controlled portions of the race—the moral and spiritual, the Avise and prudent portions—to guide, protect, bless, and save the residue. When, therefore, in their efforts HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 125 to do so, the free-will of the indolent and careless seems not to be respected, it is only because the free-will of the God- erected representatives of humanity, Avhich is more entitled to respect, claims its rights, and asserts itself for the good of those it schools and controls. AA'hen men, too ignorant or feeble, too unfortunate and ill-organized to keep their souls erect above their bodies, are seized by the strong in intellect, in heart, and in Avill (the morally prosperous and good), and lifted in spite of themselves on to the plane of obedience, and decency, and comfort—though they seem to be treated as machines, and not to have their fate in their oavu hands, it is only because in these saviors of their oavii race, God is vindicating the poAver of mind OA'er matter, of will over circumstances, of spirit over body, in a way that redounds to the glory of our common nature, while it is des- tined to end in lifting all men unto the possession of that free-Avill and self-protection Avhich is their true humanity. The policy of this Asylum is, then, a Christian, a wise, a holy policy. It Avill be universally adopted. It is not only the inebriate Avho is. destined to be restrained of his liberty and treated Avith medical and psychological skill, but the criminal, and the vicious of every grade, the moment their liberty becomes dangerous to society. And the terms of their confinement are ultimately—I speak with absolute con- viction—to be limited only by the date of their cure; life-long for the incorrigible and incurable in all cases, brief as possi- ble for all Avho yield readily to a humane treatment. Society gains nothing by holding for an hour any man a prisoner who is fit to be at large. Liberty and human rights gain nothing by allowing any man to be at large for a moment, who is destroying himself and his family and neighbors. All that Ave need is, Avhat Ave are fast gaining, a possession of the tests and guages of this fitness or unfitness; and then, precisely what Ave do Avith the idiot, the insane, and the thief, Ave shall do Avith the inebriate, the murderer, and the weak and Avicked of all classes. To the courageous and humane hearts and minds, that leave the easy and beaten paths of indolent custom, to ex- plore ucav ways of usefulness, to open neAV tracks of safety, to pioneer Humanity's questful progress, we OAve peculiar 126 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. honor; and if they clothe themselves in the modest garb of unassuming worth, Ave oavc it all the more. I rejoice, then, to be able to lift to the pedestal of this majestic occasion, and there to place before the eyes of the friends of the unfor- tunate, of the inebriate, and his Avretched victims only less miserable tkan himself, the name of the first man who pro- posed, and advocated, and successfully carried into effect, the project of an Inebriate Asylum—Dr. J. EdAvard Turner. May (iod reAvard his faith and his works! One great event in physical science has illustrated the year in Avhich Ave live, forever memorable in the minds of men. as the year in which time, and space, and sea, yielded to man's longing for union with his race. Another, not iioav so evident or so universally appreciated, has already oc- curred in the starting of a policy, the beginning of a class of benevolent institutions, destined to run round the Avorld, and to unite all men in gratitude. As I looked last night at the flaming comet in our sky, and saAv it inclined and plumed like a pen. fit and ready for the Almighty's oavii hand, I could not but feel, that if he should seize it and inscribe Avith its diamond-point upon the sky the chief evTent of this Annus Mirabilis. it would be the foundation of a policy and a usage such as that we iioav celebrate—of an Institution, the first of its kind in the world, which proclaims that Mercy is better than Justice; nay, that Mercy is an exacter Justice. Dr. Bellows was listened to with the utmost atten- tion, and at the close warmly applauded. Air. Butler, the president, then said: It is proper I should mention to the audience that in addi- tion to the able speakers who have instructed and delighted us by their elaborate, luminous, and philosophical discourses on this occasion, Ave hoped to have the presence and the pow- erful aid of the Rev. Dr. Bethune, of Brooklyn, and the Hon. George W. Clinton, of Buffalo. Each of these gentlemen takes a deep interest in this Association, and had it not been for unavoidable detention, we would have been favored with their presence. There is a resident of this village who has taken a great interest in this enterprise; who has held a high place in the government of this State, and a still higher place HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 127 in the government of this Union, avIio, I am sure, will be list- ened to Avith great pleasure, not only by his OAvn felloAv-citi- zens of the toAvn of Binghamton, but also by the men Avho have come from distant places—some from the very ends of the State. Therefore, I introduce to you my friend, the Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson. [Loud applause.] Mr. Dickinson, on coming forward, was greeted with a storm of applause. DANIEL S. DICKINSON. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 129 REMARKS HY HON. DANIEL S. DICKINSON. Mr. President, Fellow-Citizens .-—Upon an introduction so kind and generous, it gives me great pleasure to speak, that I may welcome with my whole heart this vast audience, and the numerous distinguished gentlemen who, having contrib- uted of their influence and substance for the inauguration of this institution, sacred to the cause of philanthropy, have come hither, to participate in laying, with becoming ceremo- nies, its moral and material foundation. Time will not permit me to speak of the benefits and blessings which are destined to flow from the Inebriate Asylum for the frail, erring children of humanity—nor to tell of the pure, gushing life- streams this great fountain of good is to send forth, to refresh and fertilize the bleak and barren Avaste of intemper- ance—nor to point to the inebriated maniac, who shall, by its heaven-born influences, be clothed again in his right mind— nor of the prodigal son, who, covered with vice and rags, shall arise and go to his father. If the great army of intemperance—those who are dying under the influence of this remorseless destroyer—those who are becoming laAvless outcasts—those who commit, or associ- ate with crime, by reason of intoxicating draughts—should march together in solid column, the earth itself would heave, and throb, and tremble under their tread, as though moved by the convulsions of a volcano! To arrest the progress of this terrible element, Philanthropy, in her ceaseless effort for fallen man, erects this institution. How many fathers are looking on with a parent's painfully anxious solicitude? Hoav manyAvives and mothers will reverently kneel and pray to the Father in heaven that this effort may be blest? Oh! how many children will raise their little hands in prayer for its success, that the monster—intemperance—shall never come hither to torment them before their time, and curse with blood and tears the lustre of their birth-star? But I pause, for I am forgetting that among all the dis- tinguished here, there is one pre-eminent upon this platform —one who came here upon another errand, but has kindly consented to honor us by his presence—one who is known Avherever the philanthropic heart has throbbed, wherever learning, eloquence, or statesmanship are known, or civiliza- tion has traveled; and I shall best serve you by closing my remarks, and by introducing to you Edward Everett. The Hon. Edward Everett hoav rose, and was greeted with unrestrained manifestations of esteem. 9 EDWAUD EVERETT. HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 131 REMARKS BY HON. EDWARD EA'ERETT. Mr. President, Fellow-Citizens :—If my worthy friend and hospitable host, Avho has just taken his seat, were capable of doing anything unkind or unfair, I should think he had been guilty of it on the present occasion, in requiring me to place my poor, unpremeditated remarks in direct contrast with the mature thoughts, and finished discussions, and elo- quent sentiments, which have held your attention, instructed your minds, and warmed your hearts, on this interesting occasion. In fact, Mr. President, I almost think that, under the circumstances of the case, I am hardly amenable to your jurisdiction, that I ought to be looked upon, not as a volun- teer, but as one impressed into the service. It reminds me, Sir, of the pretentions of a foreign power (if you will not think me going out of the Avay for a comparison), in years long past, Avhen the Avhole civilized Avorld, except our OAvn country, Avas involved in Avar, claiming the rights of bellig- erents, and Ave the only neutral. That foreign power, Sir, didn't claim the right to enter our neutral vessels for the sake of impressing our seaman into their service, but if, in the exercise of the belligerents' right of searching neutrals for contraband goods, they encountered the king's subjects, or those they chose to consider such, they claimed the right to impress them. Now, Sir, I have come here, as you kiunv, on a A*ery different errand; you have caught me on the platform, and you have impressed me. It was, 1 OAvn, with some little misgiving that I found myself—retired as I am entirely from public life—stepping upon the Binghamton platform. But, inasmuch, Sir, as I saAV my friend, Avho has so kindly presented me to this audience, examining the plat- form rather carefully, looking at it from above and beneath, to see if it were safe, I thought if he might venture, I might; and that a platform Avhich could hold him and you, Sir, and Doctor Francis, and Doctor BelloAvs, Mr. Street, and all Avhom I see around me, of all sects and all parties, though not very compact in its appearance, was strong enough to hold me. Sir, to speak more seriously, I should be ashamed of my- self if it required any premeditation, any forethought, to pour 132 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. out the simple and honest effusions of the heart on an occa- sion so interesting as this. A good occasion, Sir; a good day, notwithstanding its commencement. I have heard from one friend and another this morning—kind enough to pay his respects to me, knoAving on what errand I had come— that he was sorry that Ave hadn't a good day. It was, it is true, raining in the morning. But it is a good day, notwith- standing the rain. The weather is good ; all Aveather is good; sunshine is good; rain is good. Not good weather. Sir? Ask the farmer, into whose grains and roots there yet remains some of its moisture, to be driven by to-morrow's sun. Ask the boatman, who is Avaiting for his raft to go over the rapids. Ask the dairy-man and grazier, if the rain, even at this season, is not good. Ask the lover of nature, if it is not good weather when it rains. Sir, one may see in Europe artificial water-works, cascades constructed by the skill of man at enormous expense—at Chatsworth, at Hesse- Cassel, and the remains of the magnificent water-works at Marley, where Louis XFY. lavished uncounted millions of gold, and thus, according to some writers, commenced those dilapidations of the treasury which brought on the French Revolution. The traveler- thinks it a great thing to see these artificial Avater-works, where a little Avater is pumped up by creaking machinery, or a panting steam-engine, to be scat- tered in frothy spray; and do Ave talk of its not being a good day, when God's great engine is exhibiting to us His imperial water-works, sending up the mists and vapors to the clouds, to be rained down again in comfort and beauty and plenty upon grateful and thirsty man? Sir, as a mere gratification of the taste, I know nothing in nature more sublime, more beautiful, than these genial rains, descending in -abundance and salubrity from the skies. It is a good day, Sir, be the weather what it may, for it is consecrated to a good work. You are taking the first step in a great enterprise of mercy and humanity. Sir, the duty which society owes to the interesting class for whose relief this institution is founded, is one of the most impor- tant and the most delicate which it has to perform. If there were any doubts before, they would have been removed by HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 133 the eloquent discourses Ave haAre just heard. AYhat society ought to do, what it can attempt hopefully, is a question not yet perhaps satisfactorily solved, as far as concerns the great authoritative expression of the will and the poAver of the community in the form of laAV. Hoav far, and in what way, the laAV of the land can be applied to remedy and miti- gate the tremendous evils of intemperance, is a question not yet perhaps satisfactorily solved. But Ave have come here, sir, brought together by no law that creates any divisions of opinion—the law of love— where Ave are all magistrates and all subjects. In obedience to the dictates of that laAV, sir, Ave have come together. You have come together, friends and fellow-citizens, to take the first step in founding an institution Avhich is to furnish a home for the homeless, a refuge from the world, that visits its oavii faults with such severity upon the frail and suffering of our race—a kindly refuge. Avhere they Avill be received in the hour of their extremity, and Avelcomed Avith all the comforts Avhich their condition admits and demands; and especially, sir, Avhere they Avill be removed from temptation. Removed from temptation ! Sir, during those interesting ceremonies Avhich we have witnessed at the laying of the cor- ner-stone, when the most sublime of petitions from theAvisest and best of Masters Avas repeated by those hundreds and thousands that stood with uncovered heads to Avitness their performance, I Avas struck, Avith a force which I OAvn I have never felt before, with the sequence of the ideas. "Lead us not into temptation"—that comes before deliverance from evil. "Lead us not into temptation." Sir, a great moral poet has said: "Vice is a monster of such hideous mien, That to be hated, needs but to be seen." That is the evil fromAvhich Ave pray to be delivered. It is the hideous monster, " That to be hated, needs but to be seen." But it is not so Avith temptation. Temptation is not a hideous monster. It too often comes in a lovely form, clothed Avith grace and beauty, decked with garlands, speaking with a silver voice, and calling to us when Ave are off our guard. 131 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. That is Avhat Ave first need to pray to be protected from. Evil, that hideous monster: feAv persons who have enjoyed the ordinary advantages of an education in this part of the world, feAv persons that have any thing that can be called a virtuous home, are in great danger of being led astray by this hideous monster, Avhen it stands before them in all its native deformity. But Avho is safe from the Circean voice of Temptation ? ■ Mr. President, the reverend and eloquent gentleman who preceded me, has said with great justice, that you were not only laying the foundation of an asylum for this State, but if it succeeds, you haA'e laid this day a corner-stone for a simi- lar asylum in every State of this Union, in every kingdom of Europe. Hasn't it been so with all great improvements that may be classed with this? AA'asn't it so with prison discip- line? There is not in all the civilized world, except Naples (if you include Naples in the civilized world), a place where the old abuses in j)rison discipline exist. The humane treat- ment is evTery where imitated and adopted. So it is, sir, with asylums for the insane. The old system of coercion and cruelty is done away with, not in New York, in Philadelphia, and in Boston alone, but throughout the civilized world. So it will be, sir. with the Asylum for the Inebriate. Let these first steps result successfully; let these walls go up; let the poor victims of inebriety be gathered there; let the kind treatment, medical counsel, and employment for the mind and for the time produce the effects, which I haven't the slightest doubt they will produce; and. as I have said before, as fast as they can be erected, you will have a similar institu- tion in everv civilized countrv in the world. Yes, sir; brine these unhappy inebriates there, protect them from tempta- tion, occupy their time, amuse their thoughts, surround them with rational pleasures ; above all, sir, let the delightful influ- ences of tin1 beautiful nature1 that here surrounds us have their due effect upon them; let them learn to Avorship the common Father in this glorious temple, of which these sur- rounding hills are the pillars, and this glorious concave the vaulted arch—and believe me, many years will not pass aAvay before it will appear that what you have just done for your own community, you have done for the civilized world. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 135 CLOSINO REMARKS BY HON. BENJAMIN F. BUTLER. I will not detain the audience a moment, by attempting to give utterance to the obligations Ave are under to the most accomplished of American orators, for the speech just deliv- ered, and though impressed into the service, he has shown himself a true man, and most nobly has he fought under the colors of humanity. I have to mention that many letters have been received from distinguished public men, the Gov- ernor of this State, the Mayor of the City of New York, and many others in high places. Also from distinguished physi- cians in our oavii State, and in other States; and I should particularly mention, letters from the Superintendents of most of the Asylums for the treatment of the Insane in the United States; that in all these letters, in various forms, their writers give utterance to strong expressions in respect to this neAV home of mercy; that most of them—that all of them, hail it as destined to open a ne\v epoch in the history of benevolence; and those who are best qualified to judge, that is to say, superintendents of asylums for the insane, express universal and intense interest in our efforts. Some say that they have thought for years that such an Asylum should be erected ; and one expresses the opinion, as his enlightened judgment, that the one whose foundation is laid here to-day, will be imitated in every other State of the American Union. Those letters can not iioav be read, but will be published in the pamphlet. And now, after music by the band, the audience will be called to listen to the strains of a true poet, a native son of NeAV York, who has consented to gratify us on the occasion by a poem. I shall have the honor at the proper moment, of introducing Mr. Street, who will deliver that poem. Then the exercises of this interesting occasion will be brought to a close by the benediction being pronounced by the Rev. Mr. Prince, one of the founders of this association—one of the first trustees—though not now a member of the Board. Alfred B. Street, Esq., of Albany, on being intro- duced to the audience, by the president, delivered Hie following poem, which he composed for the occasion. It was listened to with great attention, and its author warmly applauded at the end. ALFRED B. STREET. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 137 POEM—BY ALFRED B. STREET, ESQ. AAlien Sin made Avreck of this enchanting earth, And all things evil ushered into birth, Divinest Pity, hastening from on high, Marking man's ruin Avith forgiving sigh, Bade seraph Charity, uiiAvavering, stay To soothe his sorrow and to smooth his Avay. And ever since has this sweet Spirit shed Celestial music from her heavenly tread ; And her bright brow, illumed with lambent light, Changed into smiling day the darkest, stormiest night. Of all the evils shadoAving here beloAv, Thy hand, Intemperance, works the direst Avoe! Could all the gathered tears attest thy might, Oh, what a sea would Avelter on the sight! Could all the moans be heard from thy career, AAiiat a wild sound would peal upon the ear! Could all thy victims march in dread array, Across the Avoiid Avould stretch their blackening way! Foe of the race, Avhat horrors mark thy shrine! AAiiat fatal lures, what fearful victories thine! Thine, the poor drunkard, reveling in his shame; Thine the young bride that bears his blighted name; Thine, the lost child that sees the fingered scorn, And feels night's shadoAV mantling o'er its morn; Thine, the vast dead that passed Avithout a sign; The darkened hosts of starry natures thine; Thine, the red arm that welds the murderer's knife, And thine the idiot's driveling death in life! From thee, the maniac's piercing shrieks ascend, The nerves frame spectres to the horrid end; From thee, fresh youth boAvs down his head to die, And age, even ere its time, yields up its trembling sigh. War! thy wild chariot rolls o'er piles of slain, Thou drenches! empires with thy crimson rain! Thy victims, Pestilence! uncounted fall, Till Heaven seems mantled with unpitying pall! Famine! thy gaunt, imploring arms are spread, Thy pale lips murmuring, " Give me, give me bread!" 138 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. But vail your brows before the hideous glooms, Of that dread monarch over myriad tombs! Great God! Blest Guardian o'er this Avorld of ours, Against Thy throne, this fiend, the mightiest, toAvers! For Thy weak race, he lies in sleepless wait; Body and soul, he SAveeps them to their fate; AAiien will Thy red avenging bolt be hurled To dash the demon from a woe-worn world? Tempting the snares, his shining treachery spreads! Countless the pitfalls, in the path he treads! Song that should soar in purest heaven, alas! Wreaths its rich garlands round the glittering glass In it the morning melts its pearly dew, To it the sunshine lends its ruby hue; Rich through its depths imperial purples beam, Breaths of all flowers vield fragrance to its stream; Unclouded suns o'er smiling vineyards glow, And all to veil this monster working woe. In snaky glide it starts upon its way, Closer and closer, creeping on its prey; And when its charm the spell-bound victim holds, Then come its crushing anaconda folds. Its lure first adds a brightness to the jest, To wit a sparkle, and to mirth a zest— A loftier wing to Fancy, as she soars. And even on Dullness, transient lustre pours; Oh, dire reverse! when bound in burning chains, Finds the prone will, that naught of strength remains! When in the gulf, red ya.Avning at its feet. It knoAVS the end it shudders wild to meet; Nearer and nearer, drifting all aw reck, Drawn by a force it cannot, cannot check! But hail! all hail! AAiien heaven seems wrapped in gloom, And Earth is scowling with the drunkard's doom, Hither, blest Charity's SAvift footsteps wend, To stand betAveen the victim and his end; Hand-linked with knowledge, piercingly she sees Habit merged helpless into fierce disease; Disease, that grasps the frame, the mind, the heart, HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 139 But which she baffles with creative art. Too long the world hath let the victim go, Staggering, unchecked, to his dark depth of woe, Murmuring, " In vain the drunkard's course to stay, The drunkard's doom must close the drunkard's way! " "Back bend that way! " loud Charity proclaims, While high in air her torch of knowledge flames. " Back bend that way! the drunkard must not fall Unchecked ; his doom is not beyond recall. Mine to unclasp the fetters, link by link, And lead the captive gently from the brink; Rebuild his shattered nature, and restore Free—with his head erect—the man a max once more Blest be that work! here let the fane arise In which shall daAvn this heavenly enterprise! Here—where the landscape spreads its charms abroad, A peerless picture from the hand of God, Hill, meadow, vale, to cultivation won, And. in the midst, bright, leaf-boAvered Binghamton; AA'here Susquehanna, radiant with his smiles, Crowned with his emerald diadem of isles. King of the realm! caressing and caressed, Clasps his sweet bride, Chenango, to his breast; A scene, Avhose soft and soothing sense shall find AA^ay to the struggling, renovating miud ; Let the fane rise, and may its poAver command A kindred host to shed their blessings o'er the land ! The Rev. X. A. Prince then pronounced the Bene- diction, and the audience dispersed. 140 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. CORRESPONDENCE. The following are a few of the numerous letters received from gentlemen invited to be present on the occasion: [A letter from the Hon. James Buchanan, President of the United States.] Washing-ton City, 24th Sept., 1858. My Dear Sir:—My recent visit to my homein Pennsylvania has prevented me from acknowledging sooner your very kind invitation, in behalf of the Trustees of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, to be present this day at the laying of the corner-stone of the building for that noble institution. This undertaking commends itself to the warm approbation of eATery friend of humanity, and every lover of his country; and I most cordially wish it all the success which it so eminently and justly deserves. Yours very respectfully, JAMES BUCHANAN. To J. Edward Turner, Secretary. [From Hon. Lewis Cass, Secretary of State.] AVashington City, Sept. 17th, 1858. Dear Sir:—It would afford me great pleasure to accept your invitation to be present at the laying of the corner-stone of the New York State Inebri- ate Asylum, at Binghamton, on the 24th inst., were it in my power. But my public duties will necessarily detain me here at that time, and, instead of participating in the ceremonies which will mark that interesting occasion, I must content myself with expressing my deep sympathy with this noble effort to redeem human nature from one of the most terrible evils which afflict it, and my hope that it may meet all the success Avhich its best friends could desire. AVith great respect, I am, dear sir, your obedient servant, J. Edward Turner, Binghamton, N. Y. LEAA'IS CASS. [From Hon. John A. King, Governor of the State of New York.] State of New York, \ Executive Department, Albany, Sept. 17th, 1858./ Dear Sir:—I regret exceedingly that it will not be possible for me to accept your invitation to be present, and assist at the laying of the corner-stone of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, at Binghamton, on the 24th of Sep- tember. My engagements, at this moment, require my Avhole time, and my presence here. I fully ajjpreciate the noble and untiring efforts you have made in this great cause of humanity; and congratulate you, and the peo- ple of the State, that those efforts are about to be crowned with success, by the erection of the first Inebriate Asylum in the world. May you reap the true reward of so much labor and anxiety, in the solace and comfort it will afford to all who may be received within its friendly walls. With great respect, I remain, your obedient servant, Dr. J. Edward Turner. JOHN A. KING. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 141 [From Hon. George F. Fort, AI. I)., £x-Go\-ernor of New Jersey.] New Egypt, New Jersey, September 20th, 1858. My Dear Sir:—Your favor of the 15th inst., inviting me to participate in the ceremonies of laying the corner-stone of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, on the 24th instant, was duly received. I regret that the state of my health will not admit of my presence on that interesting occasion. Permit me to congratulate you upon the success which has crowned your efforts for this object. This Institution, and others of a similar character, which will shortly follow it, Avill supply a desideratum in the moral and phi- lanthropic progress of the age, and will be viewed Avith much gratification by every well-wisher of his kind. May you live to see many restored to health and sobriety by the remedial measures of this Asylum, and to witness many domestic circles restored to peace and happiness through its means. I am, dear sir, yours respectfully, Dr. J. Edward Turner, Secretary, &c. GEORGE F. FORT. [From Hon. Preston King.] Ogdensburgh, Sept. 16th, 1858. J. Edward Turner, Secretary, &c.: Dear Sir:—Your letter of the 11th inst. is received,Avith an invitation on behalf of the Trustees of the New Y'ork State Inebriate Asylum, to partici- pate in the ceremonies at Binghamton, on Friday, the 24th day of Septem- ber, inst., when the corner-stone of the Asylum will be laid. It would give me great pleasure to be present; and I regret that my engagements are such as to prevent my attending. The generous object which your Association proposes, is one that challenges the approval and favor of the public. With my best wishes for the success of the Asylum, and Avith my thanks for your kind invitation, I am, verv respectfullv, PRESTON KING. [From Hon. Daniel F. Tiemann, Mayor of the City of New Y'ork.] Mayor's Office, New York, 28d Sept., 1858. To J. Edward Turner, Cor. Sec, N. Y. State Inebriate Asylum. Dear Sir;—I ha\re just received your note inviting me to be present at Binghamton on the 24th inst., and to participate in the solemnities of laying the corner-stone of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, the pioneer Insti- tution, as you truly say, of the kind in the world. I can assure you, my dear sir, that it would afford me great happiness to be with you on this most interesting occasion (as it promises to be), and to participate in the ceremonies of the day; but my official engagements here will deprive me of this pleasure. But if not able to be present in person, I am with you in heart. I believe that this Institution will result in signal good to that unfortunate class, for whose care and treatment it has been designed, and that the example thus inaugurated by its benevolent founders, will be followed by the establish- 142 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. ment of similar asylums, not only in other sections of our country, but throughout the globe. AVith my best Avishes for the success of your noble Avork, I remain, my dear sir, yours very respectfully, DANIEL F. TIEMANN. [From Hon. A. C. Hand, Ex-Judge of the Supreme Court.] Elizabethtown, New York, Sept. 21st, 1858. Gent.:—I have the honor to acknowledge an invitation on behalf of the Trustees, to be present on the occasion of laying the Corner-Stone of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, on the 24th inst. It would afford me great pleasure to do so, but I am prevented by pre- engagements. The object of the Institution is worthy of the noblest efforts of every benevolent mind, and I trust it will be completely successful. Accept my sincere wishes for the success of the enterprise. Aery respectfully, A. C. HAND To Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, President, And J. Edward Turner, Secretary, N. Y. State Inebriate Asylum. [From the Right Reverend Bishop Potter, D. D.] 33 AVest 24th Street, \ New York, September 23, 1858./ Dr. J. Edward Turner. My Dear Sir:—I regret very much that absence from town prevented me from receiving your note until to-day, and that my engagements make it quite impossible for me to be Avith you to-morrow. There is no undertak- ing which deserves more sympathy than well-directed efforts to reclaim and save the Inebriate. That .your efforts may be crowned with abundant suc- cess, is the earnest hope of, dear sir, your friend and ser\Tant, H. POTTER. [From the Right Reverend Bishop Janes, D. D.] New York, November 4th, 1858. Dr. J. Edward Turner. Dear Sir:—My absence, on official duties, prevented me from being pres- ent on the interesting occasion of Laying the Corner-Stone of the New York State Inebriate Asylum; and has also prevented an earlier reply to your note. I congratulate you most sincerely on your success in this humane enter- prise. It is a noble work, and I anticipate from it great good to poor, wrecked humanity. May your philanthropy never fail, or even flag—God and duty! Yours truly, E. S. JANES, HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 143 [From Washington Living, Esq.] Sunny-Side, September 14, 1858. My Dear Sir:—It gives me great satisfaction to learn that the Corner- Stone of the New York State Inebriate Asylum is about to be laid, and I should rejoice to be present on so inteiesting an occasion; but I am afflicted at present by a severe access of an inveterate catarrh, which renders me unfit for any place but home. I beg you to make my grateful acknowledgments to the Board of Trus- tees for the invitation with which they have honored me, and to accept my thanks for the very kind expressions of your letter. With great respect, your obliged and humble servant, WASHINGTON IRVING. [From Eliphalet Nott, D. D., LL. I).] Union College, Sept, 11, 1858. Dear Sir:—On my return from a short excursion, I find your letter. My heart is in the charity in favor of which you ask me to lead in the prayer to be offered to Almighty God in behalf on the occasion referred to in your letter. It pains me, therefore, to assure you that neither my health, nor my previous engagements will allow me to comply with your request, and can only therefore, though absent, unite in supplications to our common Father for his continued blessing in behalf of this noble charity. Please present my acknowledgments to the Board, and believe me, yours, with great respect, ELIPHALET NOTT. [From Theodore Frelinghuysen, LL. D., Chancellor of Rutgers College.] New Brunswick, N. J. September 15th, 1858. Dr. J. Edward Turner. Dear Sir:—I duly received your kind note of invitation to the Corner- Stone Celebration of the N. Y. State Inebriate Asylum, on the 24th inst. I regret that our Fall Session of the College opens next week, and it is very important that I should be here. I must, therefore, decline, while I thank you for the favor. I rejoice that a systematic effort will now be made by your noble char- ity, for the recovery and relief of as wretched a class of our fellow-men as ever drew the tears of humanity. Very respectfully, your obedient serv't, THEO. FRELINGHUYSEN. [From Hon. R. Campbell, Lieut. Gov. elect of the State of New York.] Bath, N. Y., Sept. 23, 1858. My Dear Sir:—I have received your favor of the 20th inst, and regret that my business engagements are such as to preclude me from being pres- ent at the ceremonies of Laying the Corner-Stone of the New York State Inebriate Asylum. 144 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. For the past quarter of a century, the philanthropists of this and other countries have been engaged in efforts to suppi'ess the use of intoxicating liquors, as a beverage. Moral suasion and coercive measures have both proA"-ed unavailing to stay the desolating ravages of the evil, or disease of intemperance. The time has now arrived when something should be done by way of cure to the victims of this malady—and if this pioneer Institu- tion shall prove to be that moral lever (which its friends anticipate) to elevate that unfortunate class, who have become inebriates; and restore them to their friends and to usefulness, then will all future generations of men arise and call those blessed, who shall have aided in establishing or sustaining this Asylum. With much respect, your obedient servant, R. CAMPBELL. Dr. J. Edward Turner, Secretary, N. Y. State Inebriate Asylum [From James Boorman, Esq.] Hyde Park, Sept. 21, 1858. Dr. J. Edward Turner. Dear Sir:—I have your favor of yesterday. I should have much pleas- ure in being with you to participate in the ceremonies of Laying the Corner- Stone of the New Y'ork State Inebriate Asylum. But circumstances do not admit of my leaving home at the present time. I must, therefore, confine myself to the expression of my best wishes, that your life may be preserved to see the Institution (for the establishment of which you haA~e so persever- ingly and honorably labored), in the full tide of successful operation. Phi- lanthropy could not have selected a more fruitful object for the relief of suffering humanit3T. YTour friend and obedient servant, J. BOORMAN. Pennsylvania. Hospital for the Insane, \ Philadelphia, September 23d, 1858. / My Dear Sir:—I have received an invitation from the Board of Trustees of the New York Institution for Inebriates, to be present at the laying of the Corner-Stone of their building, and regret that imperative engagements here will prevent my being with you on so interesting an occasion. It is now many years since I had occasion, in my Reports, to advocate the establishment of an Institution for the reception and treatment of the class you propose taking under your protection and enlarged experience has only tended to confirm my convictions of its necessity and usefulness. AYith an enlightened and wise administration of its affairs, and proper laws for the control of those who may be committed to the care of the Institution, I am quite confident that it will prove worthy of the liberal regards of your Legis- lature, and of benevolent individuals—a blessing to the people of your State, and an honor to all who, under many discouragements, have been instru- mental in securing its foundation. Very respectfully yours, THOMAS S. KIRKBRIDE. To Benjamin F. Butler, President, N. Y. State Inebriate Asylum. HISTORY X Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 145 [From D. T. Brown, M. D.] Bloomingdale Asylum for the Insane, \ N. Y. City, Sept. 20th, 1S58. / J. Edward Turner, Secretary, N. Y. State Inebriate Asylum. Dear Sir:—I ha\re to express my obligations for your invitation to attend the ceremonies incident to the commencement of your Asylum building, and my regret that it will not be in my power to be present. It is scarcely necessary for me to assure you of my sympathy in a work of benevoleuce closely allied to the one which engages my own service; nor of my hope, that the philanthropists who haAre entered upon this new field may accomplish all the good they propose. I do not know the provisions of your organic law; but if you are empowered to interpose the restraint of your Institution in those cases which must otherwise terminate in the destitution of whole families, you will arrest an evil of which few persons have any just conception. In such a purpose, and in the rescue of the human body and soul from the destruction caused by intemperance, the best minds and noblest hearts of our country might engage with honor. In my official experience here, I have constant reason to deplore theAvant of such an institution as yours Avill probably be—possessing adequate legal authority to accomplish that which Ave sometimes attempt by sufferance of the patient—a condition Avhich too generally affords little probability of his restoration. I am, Avith great respect, your obedient .servant, D. T. BROWN, Physician of Bloomingdale Asylum. [From W. H. Rockavell, M. D., Superintendent of the Insane Asylum at Brattleboro.] Brattleboro, Vermont, September 20th, 1858. Dr. J. Edward Turner: Dear Sir:—Yours of the 10th inst. is received. It would afford me great pleasure to be present at the laying of the Corner-Stone of your Institution. 1 highly approve the object and design, and believe it will be the means of dispensing much good to many unfortunate persons. I exceedingly regret that circumstances beyond my control will prevent my being present on the occasion. With great respect for yourself, and those associated with you in this benevolent enterprise, I remain, Truly yours, AV. H. ROCKAVELL. [From Henry M. Harlow. M. D.] Maine Insane Hospital, 1 Augusta, Maine. Sept. 16th. 1858./ Sir:—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 9th inst., extending to me your polite invitation to be present at the laying 10 146 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. of the Corner-Stone of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, at Binghamton, Broome County, N. Y., on Friday, the 24th instant. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to accept your kind invi- tation; but duties at home, and other circumstances, will prevent my doing so. The object of such an Institution as you propose to erect, isanoble one, and claims the attention of every philanthropist: to raise up the bowed down—to speak gently to the erring—to administer to the wants of the sick —to reclaim the inebriate—and alleviate the condition of all unfortunates, are Christian, Heavenly duties; and he who does them well, exemplifies the Golden Rule: "As ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to to them." Wishing you much success in the great enterprise you have now com- menced, and hoping that others may soon be led to follow your example, in providing for the wants of the inebriate, I remain, sir, most respectfully, your obedient servant, HENRY M. HARLOW. To Benjamin F. Butler, President, N. Y. State Inebriate Asylum. [From W. S. Chipley, M. D.] Eastern Lunatic Asylum, \ Lexington, Ky., September 19, 1858./ Gentlemen:—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your invita- tion to be present at the Laying of the Corner-Stone of the New Y'ork State Inebriate Asylum. I regret that more than ordinary official duties intervene to prevent me from being present to witness the interesting ceremonies of such an impor- tant occasion. The proposed Institution has my Avarmest sympathies, and I most ardently wish it a success fully commensurate with the anticipations of its patrons and friends. I hope that, ere long, every State in the Union will have one or more similar retreats, for those who would, if they could, dash from their lips the poison that is robbing them of their manhood, desolat- ing their homes, and embittering every source of rational pleasure. The proposed Institution is but another evidence that the predominant feature of the present—the glory of our age—is an expansive bene\'olence, which is seeking to comfort the wretched, not only in virtue of the extent of her territory, the number of her people, the magnitude of her commerce, but still more in virtue of the magnificent provision she has made, and is still making, for the relief of the unfortunate. These enormous demands haAre not exhausted her resources, nor dried up the fountain of her charity; again she steps forth, the noble Pioneer in a new field of benevolence. May the New YTork State Inebriate Asylum flourish until her mission shall have been accomplished, and there shall not remain one of that pitia- ble class it is intended to shelter. Y'ours truly, To Benj. F. Butler, President, AV. S. CHIPLEY. And J. Edward Turner, Secretary, N. Y. State Inebriate Asylum. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 147 [From John M. Galt, M.D.) Eastern Lunatic Asylum, \ AA'illiamsburg, Virginia, September 17, 1858./ Gentlemen:—I have to acknowledge the reception, last evening, of your polite invitation to be present at Binghamton, on the 24th of September, when the Corner-Stone of the New York State Inebriate Asylum will be laid. It would give me great pleasure to attend the initiation of such a noble undertaking, did not circumstances forbid such action. I cannot allow this opportunity to pass, however, A\-ithout expressing my best wishes for a prosperous issue to this new and important attempt to alleviate the horrors of one of the sorest evils which afflict the race of man. Who can look upon an effort of this kind without emotion, Avhen he reflects on the innumerable eATils arising from intemperance, the tears of the widow, the sad fortune of the desolate orphan, the crime and the bloodshed, the disease, the waste of talent, and the utter wreck of hope ? When we view only a. single aspect of this terrible evil, Ave must hail with our most ardent wishes the amelioration Avhich the State of New York now proposes to attempt. Her benevolent Institutions for the Insane, for the Blind, for the Deaf Mute, and especially that for the poor Idiot, will well compare with those of any country on the globe. It is suitable, there- fore, that she should be the Pioneer of an additional amelioration, and extend the empire of her illustrious benevolence over an additional object of compassion. That this new foundation may be commensurate in the good effected with the other charities which she has already established, is the most earnest hope of, Very respectfully yours, To Benj. F. Butler, President, JOHN M. GALT, Medical Sup't. And J. Edward Turner, Secretary, N. Y. State Inebriate Asylum. CHAPTER V. It was in the year 1848 that the Hon. Benjamin F. Butler first became interested in the work of establish- ing the Inebriate Asylum. The writer called upon him, and explained the importance of a hospital in which the inebriate could be controlled and medically dealt with. "This subject," Mr. Butler said in reply, "has interested me for years. I lost, but a short time since, a very dear friend who had fallen a victim to strong drink, and if such an institution as you have described had been in existence at that time, my friend and neighbor could have been saved, and the legal profession would not have lost one of its foremost lawyers." Mr. Butler was one of the original sixty subscribers of ten dollars each to the building fund of the institu- tion before its charter was granted, and in 1855 he increased his subscription to ten shares of its capital stock, and paid for the same in 1858. On May 12th, 1857, he was elected President of the Asylum. When he was first consulted in the same year in reference to his becoming a trustee and the President of the Corpo- ration, the writer stated to him that all the services hitherto rendered by the trustees had been gratuitous, and that not a dollar of its funds had been paid to any trustee, officer, clerk or agent, and that that policy would be continued until the Asylum should be built and (148) HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 149 become self-sustaining. Mr. Butler responded that this plan, so successfully carried out for three years by the board of trustees, met with his entire approval, and that no trustee, having an interest in the success of this work, would, under any circumstances, demand or receive pay for professional services or for traveling expenses in such a noble charity. A few days before Mr. Butler sailed for Europe the Avriter called upon him to bid him good bye, and to wish him a speedy recoA^ery of his health, and a safe return to his family and friends. His conversation during the call was devoted to the subject of the Asylum, and a plan for its endowment was discussed. "Every precaution," he said, "must be used to keep out of the organization of the Asylum men who are endoAved with selfish natures with uncertain standards of honesty. The time will come," he continued, "and that in the near future, when this Asylum will be endoAved by the Avealthy who have inebriate sons needing just such restraint and medical treatment as this institution will afford, and thus, accord- ing to your plan, at last creating a perpetual fund for the support of poor patients in its wards." Mr. Butler then recalled the ceremony of the laying of the corner-stone of the Asylum—all of its details so complete in execu- tion—not a mistake or a halt marring its proceedings from its first act to its benediction. "That noted day," said he, " was the brightest and happiest of all my public life. I have been honored with high political distinc- tions such as few men have enjoyed, having been Attor- ney-General of the United States in the cabinet of Presi- dent Jackson, and Secretary of War in Mr. Van Buren's administration; and yet these honors did not give me a single day free from political annoyances or professional anxieties. I hope that my life may be spared to see the 150 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Asylum buildings finished, the Institution endowed, and its great work as a hospital for the medical treatment of the inebriate in successful operation. I have often thought of the idea advanced by Dr. BelloAvs in his able address, delivered in behalf of the Inebriate Asylum, Avhen he declared that there is not a rich parent in New York Avho can not better afford to drop his carriage than fail to contribute to the endowment of an asylum in which his own children may find their ruin averted. These solemn words uttered by the eloquent doctor have been true in the past, and will be more emphatically so in the future." The last time our honored and greatly beloved presi- dent met with the board of trustees Avas on the morning of the day that the corner-stone was laid. In less than fifty days from that date he died in the city of Paris, lamented and mourned by every one honored with his friendship, or acquainted Avith his large humanity. Although Mr. Butler did not leave a large estate, yet in his dying moments he bequeathed, among his other numerous gifts to benevolent institutions, a legacy of $700 to the NeAV York State Inebriate Asylum. At a meeting of the Trustees of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, held in the City of Albany, on the 8th day of February, 1859, the Hon. William T. McCoun, Vice-President of the Corporation, presided. The afflicting intelligence of the death of the Hon. Ben- jamin Franklin Butler, late President of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, having been communicated to the Board by the Founder, the following resolutions, prepared by John W. Francis, M. D., LL. D., of New York, were offered by the Hon. Reuben Hyde Walworth, seconded by Ex-Governor Washington Hunt, and unani- mously adopted: HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 151 Resolved, That, by the demise of Benjamin Franklin Butler, the Inebriate Hospital has lost one of its most effi- cient supporters, and intelligent advocates. Resolved, That it will ever be a melancholy, but deep satisfaction to the founders of this institution, to remember, that Avhen the Corner-Stone of the edifice was laid, Mr. But- ler's eloquent voice was heard (although for the last time) on an occasion of public benevolent enterprise; and that one of the latest acts of his useful and honored life, before leav- ing his native land, was to consecrate the great work in which Ave are engaged, by an earnest appeal to the patriot- ism and the humanity of his countrymen, in its behalf Resolved, That Ave sincerely sympathize with the tributes paid to his character, talents, self-devotion, and religious faith, by the Church, the Bar, and the Press; that Ave offer our heartfelt condolence to his afflicted family and bereaved friends, and that Ave recognize in his example of practical benevolence and intelligent zeal, a new motive to carry on our beneficent design, with confidence and faith. Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the bereaved family of the deceased, and that they be pub- lished in the daily papers of the City of New York. In offering these resolutions, Chancellor Walworth said, in substance: Mr. President:—It is not necessary for any one before this Board, to pronounce a eulogy upon our deceased Presi- dent and brother, Benjamin F. Butler—for he was well knoAvn to every member of the Board of this Institution, as one Avhose heart and whose hand were always ready to engage in any benevolent enterprise Avhich had for its object the amel- ioration of the condition of his fellow-men in this life, or the security of their happiness beyond the grave. I have known him well for nearly forty years, in private, as well as in pub- lic life; and though the discharge of his professional and public duties, which he never neglected, occupied a very great portion of his time, he ahvays found sufficient leisure to engage in works of benevolence and charity, as well as in the higher duties of religion. As a lawyer, it may be truly said 152 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. of him, " semper paratus, semper fidelis." He was always ready—ahvays faithful to the interest of the client Avhose cause he had espoused; and in the important public offices Avhich he held, he Avas equally vigilant and careful to dis- charge their duties promptly and efficiently: not in reference to his OAvn private interest, or personal adA^ancement, but solely in reference to the interests of the public. In a Avord, he Avas a pure patriot, an active and zealous philanthropist and a devoted and active Christian. But he has been taken from us, and from the Presidency of this Board, in the midst of his usefulness, to his reward in heaven. We are forcibly reminded, therefore, that what re- mains for us to do, in the work in which Ave are engaged as members of this Board, or in any other benevolent enter- prises for the benefit of our felloAV-men, must be done quickly —for Ave must soon follow our deceased brother and associ- ate to the grave—and must render an account of our several stewardships, before the throne of the Eternal. Dr. John W. Francis became interested in the work of founding the Inebriate Asylum in 1845, and from that period fonvard he was an active advocate in its behalf, and a wise counselor in all its deliberations; and he was the first subscriber to its fund. His courageous and generous nature never permitted him to shrink from carrying the burdens incident to a pioneer work, or to skulk behind frivolous excuses to shield himself from the ever-ready ridicule of a popular gabble. The inter- est which Dr. Francis felt in the work was someAvhat manifested in his visit to Binghamton in 1860, when he was the guest of the founder, and where for a week he visited the Asylum daily, and spent hours upon its grounds. A short time before the termination of his visit he placed one hundred dollars in the hands of the writer, to be expended in the purchase of hard woods for the finishing of the library, remarking at the same time, "I shall be here again next year to repeat my visit, HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 153 and also to repeat my present donation. My visit has done me good. It has inspired me with a new interest, and baptized me anew in a richer and stronger faith in this work." No trustee was more constant in his attendance upon the meetings of the board, or more able and useful in its discussions than was Dr. Francis. No discordant element was ever known among its trustees during his connection with the Inebriate Asylum. In I860 Dr. Francis was elected President of the Corporation, but lived only one month after his election to that office. A few days before his death he called his son to his bedside, and requested him to take his inau- gural address, which he had prepared with great care, and, when the time should come, to read it at the dedica- tion of the New York State Inebriate Asylum as his last words uttered in its behalf. At a meeting of the board of trustees, held in the city of Binghamton, June 5th, 1861, the following reso- lutions on the death of John W. Francis, M. D., LL. D., and late President of the Corporation, were adopted: 1. Resolved, That by the death of John Wakefield Fran- cis the Ncav York State Inebriate Asylum has lost one of its most ardent and able advocates and supporters—its first donor—its first petitioner—and its first advocate in the Medi- cal World. 2. Resolved, That by the death of our learned brother and co-laborer the medical profession has lost one of its brightest stars; science one of its devoted scholars; the Nation one of its purest patriots; and the world, a philan- thropist and a Christian. 3. Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with the well founded tributes paid to his private, public, and professional character by the Medical, Scientific, and Humane societies, and that AA^e offer our heart-felt condolence to his deeply afflicted family and friends. May his devotion to all great REUBEN HYDE AVALAVORTH. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 155 and humane works inspire us Avith a reneAved energy to go on to the completion of this great enterprise. 4. Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the bereaved family of the deceased, and the daily papers in the city of Ncaa* York. 5. Resolved, That George Folsom, James AV. Beekman, and J. EdAvard Turner, be appointed as a committee to erect, in the Chapel of the Asylum,.two marble monuments to the memory of Hon. Benjamin Franklin Butler, and John Wake- field Francis, M. D., LL. D., the late Presidents of the New York State Inebriate Asylum. Hon. Reuben Hyde Wahvorth, the second President of the NeAV YTork State Inebriate Asylum, became inter- ested in the work of founding the Asylum in 1849. He subscribed ten dollars to its capital stock in 1854. He became a trustee in its organization in 1857, and he was elected its President in 1859. When the writer first called upon Chancellor Wal- worth to interest him in this pioneer work, the discussion drifted to the legal side of the question—the responsi- bility of the drunkard, and the monstrous crimes grow- ing out of his physical condition. u As the courts for centuries have ruled," said the writer, "the drunkard has been held responsible for criminal acts and civil con- tracts; but of later years the courts have ruled that contracts made when one of the contracting parties is under the influence of strong drink, are null and void, and the testimony of a man in a state of inebriation is no longer received by the courts." "It is my humble opinion," said the Chancellor, "that if you found the Inebriate Asylum, you will establish the fact that inebriety is a constitutional and hereditary disease, out of which grows a form of insanity more dangerous than that of the class which is now con- fined in our insane asylums. Y"ou Avill be able to sweep 156 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. away the legal fallacy of holding one human being responsible for murder committed under the influence of a brain diseased by alcohol, and at the same time not permitting another laboring under the same disease, to testify in the witness-box, nor to be held responsible for contracts made under the same diseased conditions.11 "When this work is accomplished," answered the writer, " mankind will acknowledge that as a better form of government which medically treats and controls this irresponsible class of men in hospitals before they mur- der their innocent victims, than that which continues the old policy of holding them responsible for the crimes which they commit. Does the ruling of the court which executes upon the gallows the irresponsible drunkard for the murder he commits, bring to life his murdered victim? Is society made better, or individuals purer by having two murders committed in the place of one I No man taking his wine, or drinking his whiskey, ever expects to become a drunkard: this alcoholic delusion follows the drinker from the first glass he sips to the last which terminates his life. The lawyer who defends the inebriate for the murder of his child, the prosecuting attorney who convicts him, the jurors who pronounce him guilty,—one and all,—on the very day of his convic- tion, drink their wine, and take their brand}' with no warning voice to judge, bar or jury, that they are doing that which the poor drunkard has done to make him a murderer. Thus the end of justice, which seeks a victim as a warning voice to the evil doer, is defeated,—the trial becomes a farce,—and the execution a legal murder. By restraining the inebriate in asylums for medical treat- ment when his physical condition makes him no longer safe to go at large, is liberty the loser, society the sufferer, or is the individual oppressed? Surely not; there is HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 157 no more wrong committed upon personal liberty than in placing the homicidal and suicidal cases of insanity in insane asylums, or small-pox patients in pest-houses." The Chancellor replied that the most enlightened and humane government is the one that Avill prevent crime rather than punish it. Such a government will protect its feeblest and weakest citizen, and give control and shelter to its dangerous and irresponsible classes. During another call upon Chancellor Wahvorth in 1867, lie said to the writer, "I Avell remember the informal meeting of the Investigating Committee of AArhich I Avas chairman, held at the adjournment of the Board, July 10th, 1866. Dr. Parker then stated before the committee that he possessed written charges against Turner, and would file them within one week with the chairman of the committee. Judge Mullen also at this meeting stated before the committee that Dr. Parker never intended to file his charges with the committee, that those charges were in the mouth of every local trustee, and that thevT were nothing more than fictitious state- ments, invented for circulation, but not for investigation by a committee appointed for that purpose. I also remember the affidavit which I made as chairman of the Investigating Committee that no charges were made and filed with said committee against any officer of said Asylum."* During the writer's last interview with Chancellor Wahvorth, the conversation turned principally upon the subjects of the adjournment of the charter day, the deed which Dr. Parker gave to the State, and the meeting of the board of trustees on September 11th, 1866. "The history of the Asylum must be written," said the Chan- cellor, " and no one can accomplish that work so well as yourself. Such a history will expose the most wicked and cruel conspiracy ever enacted in the growth of any institution, and ' stranger than fiction' will be the verdict of the reader." * The said affidavit was filed in the office of the county Clerk of Oneida by Senator Kernan. VALENTINE MOTT. 7373 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 159 INAUGURAL DISCOURSE DELIVERED BY VALENTINE MOTT, M. D., LL. D., AT BINGHAMTON, ON THE 20TH NOV., 1861. Gentlemen and Ladies :—In accepting the office of Presi- dent of the N. Y. State Inebriate Asylum, alloAv me to allude to the distinguished gentlemen ayIio have heretofore filled the chair to which your kind suffrages have called me. Such men as Benjamin F. Butler, and John AY. Francis, and Reu- ben H. Wahvorth, the former Presidents of this Institution, have been ahvays found, throughout history, leadingthe most noble of the benevolent enterprises of the time in Avhich they lived. Men of such active hearts and deep sympathies, clear heads and strong arms, live Avhen they may, are a blessing to our common humanity, and an honor to our race. In occupying the position they have left, I feel as Jeffer- son did Avhen holding the same relation to Dr. Franklin at the Court of France, and Avill endeavor to follow them, if I may not succeed them, and, accordingly, permit me to pre- sent a feAv reflections Avhich are elicited by this occasion. It Avas a fancy of the ancient Greek physicians, that, someAvhere in the interior regions of Africa, there flourished a plant, of such Avonderful power, that strangers, Avho once visited that country and tasted the fruit, lost all desire to return, and that the infatuated man, Avho had once partaken of this enchanted food, forgot his former kindred, and home, and friends and family, and remained ever after an alien, self-expatriated from his native land. Polvbus, the pupil and son-in-laAV of Hippocrates, speaks of the plant as the lotus, and gives a description of the Lotophagi, or men Avho subsisted upon it. He tells us, it Avas a thorny shrub, groAV- ing in sandy soils, bearing berries about the size of an olive, which-were at first white, but afterwards acquired a reddish hue, having a taste like that of dates. From these berries was expressed a sweet juice, which had the properties of wine. Some modern botanists have imagined that the famed ancient plant was the Zizyphus lotus, iioav found in Tunis and the northern regions of the African continent. Mungo Park adopts this supposition, and speaks of the plant as the ancient lotus, and describes its juice as SAveet and palatable. The classic fable has been wrought up by the poet Ten- nyson into an exquisite little idyl, expressive of the very 160 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. essence of indolence and ennui. A boat's creAv, Avho by some chance have landed on the Lotus Island, are visited by the native inhabitants, "'a mild-eyed, melancholy race." "Branches they bore of that enchanted stem, " Laden with flower and fruit, Avhereof they gave "To each; but whoso did receive of them "And taste, to him the gushing of the wave, "Far, far away, did seem to mourn and rave "On alien shores; and if his fellow spake, " His voice Avas thin as voices from the grave, " And deep asleep, he seemed yet all awake, "And music in his ears his beating heart did make." We are told that memory in these men still remained to some extent faithful; so that pictures of the past Avere con- tinually flitting before them, but Avithout exciting any desire to break the spell. In the poem, they "lie doAvn like gods together, forgetful of mankind;" and then, in such language as pertains to dreams, they go on to converse: "Dear is the memory of our wedded lives, "And dear the last embraces of our wives, "And their warm tears; but all hath suffered change, " For surely now our household hearths are cold; "Our sons inherit us, our looks are strange, "And we should come like ghosts to trouble joy." In this singularly beautiful creation of Grecian fancy is expressed the natural horror with which men look upon insanity, and especially that form of the disease which has been produced by physical agency. And, as if to render the fable still further applicable to our present purpose, the Lotophagi were said to manufacture their bread from the same " insane plant that took the reason prisoner." That man is degraded and brutalized by excessive indul- gence in pleasure, Avas also expressed in the same elegant my- thology, in another form. When Ulysses returned from his wanderings, he stopped aAvhile in the dominions of Queen Circe, to refresh his way-Avorn troops and recruit their failing strength. Here, in the arms of the sorceress, for a whole year, the hero forgot his glory; while his folloAvers, plung- ing headlong into all manner of excesses, Avere changed by her potions into filthy swine. At length, aroused to a sense of his catastrophe, and protected by a branch of the herb HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 161 Moly, furnished him by the god Mercury, Ulysses, sword in hand, demanded of the Queen the restoration of his compan- ions to their former state. She complied, and loaded the hero with honors and emoluments. Both these fables were intended to show the sad con- dition of men who have given themselves up to the control of their oavii appetites and passions, instead of trusting to the guidance of the higher attribute of reason; and the lat- ter one, in addition, illustrates the power of the human will, under proper medical protection, to break through the cords of this bondage, and again assert its natural liberty. It Avas reserved, however, for more modern times to real- ize in full force the fearful idea typified in these ancient myths. When an Arabian alchemist succeeded in isolating the intoxicating principle of fermented liquors, and obtained the •'Spirit of Wine," which he named Alcohol, the deleteri- ous effects of this agent, on the well-being of man, became much more manifest. It was the use of liquors merely fer- mented, that Avas personified in the mythological idea of the god Bacchus. He is sometimes represented as a young man, weak and effeminate from excessive indulgence in wine; at others, he appears as an old man, red-faced and dull-eyed, with a fatuitous laugh, to indicate the loss of intellect pro- duced by continued inebriety. Among birds, the magpie was devoted to his service, as expressive of garrulity; among beasts, the panther, for its cowardice and subtlety. His head is crowned with a wreath of leaves, of ivy and the vine commingled. Had the Hellenic imagination been taxed to represent the extreme effects of distilled liquors, as shown in subsequent times, it must have resorted to the infernal regions for imagery, and chosen for the purpose one of the divinities of Hades. The horrors of delirium tremens could only have found embodiment in some execrable shape, attended by serpents and dragons, armed with a whip of scorpions— crowned with a chaplet of fire—in aspect "fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell." From what has been said, Ave may infer that wherever the moral principle has been cultivated among civilized nations, men have ahvays regarded with aversion any physical agent 11 162 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. that weakens their control over their OAvn passions and appe- tites, that unseats reason, and gives them over to do that Avhich in their calmer moments they would abhor. We also see that drunkenness, though it may be pleasant as the breezes that sighed over the Lotos Islands, and SAveet as the taste of their enchanted fruit, and droAvsv as the breaking of distant waves, and dreamy as ease after weary labor—though it may be joyous, Avith festive cup, and Bacchanal revel, with song and mirth and dance, is yet a vice—a demoralizing, soul-destroying, body-Avasting disease, and only the more dangerous because the more alluring. Not only does the common sense of mankind detest drunkenness. The Sacred Scriptures are express in their testimony against this vice. "Thou shalt not kill," was the commandment issued to man by the Most High, amid the thunders of Sinai, and no man is privileged to injure or destroy either others or himself. The great Apostle tells us that no man lives unto himself; and the relations of society are such, that in every individual are vested the interests of others—of wives and children, of parents and friends, or of companions and associates. The same authority also warns us against crimes committed upon the body, the temple of an immortal spirit, and the property of the Great King. And yet, the disease of inebriety is continually sending to the grave more victims than the three great enemies of man— starvation, war, and j>estHence—combined. If Ave consult nature, Ave shall find that there is a broad and deep physiological law, by Avhich excess of pleasure ends in pain. He Avho gazes full upon the sun is blinded by its brightness; and he Avho Avould experience illicit sensual joys is smitten Avith a plague. Under the rose is hidden a thorn; and, in the wreath of Bacchus, the vine leaves scarce conceal those of the ivy. Our nervous system is so constituted that pleasure, often repeated, palls upon the sense, and then the stimulus to produce the same gratification must be increased. Hence, debasing joys tend ever in a downward course. The gardens of pleasure are surrounded by the wilderness of pain; and however the paths we are treading may appear to mean- der, they will all eventually lead out into the forest. Though our course be at first among roses and violets, it will soon be HISTORY N. Y. STATE TNEBRIATE ASYLUM. 163 bordered with poppies and nightshade. Though the breeze be at first laden with fragrance, it will soon bear a heavy narcotic odor. Though the skies be iioav cloudless and bright, they will soon be overcast and threatening; and if we con- tinue our ramble, impending night will eventually corned oavii upon us, lost and Avandering upon the dark mountains. And yet experience has sIioavu that, even under these cir- cumstances, it is possible for the Avanderer to return; that, though lost in the wilderness of Transgression, and bound in the servitude of Passion, he may, as Ulysses did, arm himself with the sword of resolution, and protect himself with medi- cine, as with the herb Moly, and demand of the sorceress that his chains be loosened. And then, as he slowly and feebly retraces his steps towards purity and peace, let medical science prove a lamp to his feet and a guide to his path, while religion leads him as the star of Bethlehem led the shepherds to Avhere the child Innocence sleeps. In building this Hospital Ave will not stop to inquire into the cause of the disease Ave Avould cure. We Avish to rescue the unfortunate victims of this disease from their constitu- tional malady, even though their condition may have been incurred by their oavii folly, and though they may have become so insane as to love the bondage. In the spirit of Him who forgave the woman, and then bade her " Go and sin no more," we pile up its walls. HoAvard did not stop to inquire if the objects of his beneficence Avere worthy. Nay, he kneAV they were the vilest of criminals. So may we build hospitals for venereal diseases and for foundlings, notwith- standing our fear of increasing immorality. Our Saviour enumerates among the highest acts of charity this, "I was sick and in prison, and ye visited me." But permit me to invite your attention to some consid- erations of a more didactic nature. During the last ten years, the medical profession has been agitated and divided by the question, whether alcohol may under any circumstances be assimilated by the human system, and used as food. On the one side, it is asserted by Doctors Todd and Bowman and their friends, that alcohol, in its ordinary relations to the nervous system, is similar to tea and coffee, being used to check the waste incident to 164 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. natural wear, while under some circumstances it is in reality capable of becoming food for the support of the nervous and respiratory systems. They advert to the fact that, Avhen taken into the system, alcohol is, to a certain extent, oxi- dized and evacuated through the lungs, and claim that it must be considered to that extent, as fuel for the support of the temperature of the body. They allude to the similarity in chemical composition of alcohol to the nervous tissue, and aver that the intellectual functions are aided by the presence of a moderate quantity of it in the blood. They also say that it has ahvays been extensively used by man in some of its forms, and that the very general appetite for it does in fact imply that it is of real service in certain con- ditions of the system. On the other side, it is claimed by Dr. Carpenter and his supporters that alcohol under no circum- stances forms any part of the tissues of animals in their normal condition; hence its use must be ahvays deleterious. That, instead of being food for the nervous system, it merely stimulates to inordinate exertion, followed by corresponding depression and early destruction—that, though it may be partially oxidized in the lungs, this result is at the expense of the fatty matter that should have been used for the pur- pose, Avhich matter is throAvn in upon the liver, giving rise to congestion and disease of that organ. To the argument from appetite, they reply that man's instincts, like those of the loAver animals, Avere adapted by the Creator to the nat- ural Avorld by Avhich he is surrounded, and not to a world of chemical inventions. Many of them also believe that the danger of acquiring an appetite for the use of alcohol is so great that it is expedient to abstain entirely from it. AVhen these points are collated, it will appear that this question, like many others that have given rise to serious disputes, is mostly the matter of a word. The parties differ in their definition of the word "food." Even if Ave allow that alcohol is a kind of food, the disease which results from the excessive use of that food is a legitimate object of medi- cal treatment. There are other instances Avell knoAvn to physicians, Avhere living too exclusively on certain kinds of aliment causes specific diseases. Of this nature are scurvy, which occurs from too long confinement to salted provisions, HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 165 and dry gangrene, Avhich results from the contamination of bread Avith ergot. In fact, if Ave allow this question its great- est latitude, Ave shall find no dividing line between aliment- ary substances and remedial agents, and shall come to regard medicines themselves as mere varieties of food. To whichever of these tAvo divisions of the medical pro- fession physicians may incline, they all agree that the habit- ual use of alcoholic drinks does frequently lead to a condition of the system in Avhich the animal economy has adapted itself, as far as may be, to this exceedingly diffusible and highly stimulating kind of food, and that this result is exceed- ingly deleterious to the moral and physical interests of man. Containing, as alcohol does, no nitrogen, it is chemically impossible for it to support the muscular system. Hence it is that inebriates are indolent in their habits and unfit for physical labor, and for this reason alcohol should form no part of the diet of men who are required to undergo severe bodily exertion. Prize fighters, while training, are alloAved no spirituous drinks; and it has been found necessary at Washington to exclude intoxicating liquors from the army. So prohibitory laws had their origin in Maine, among the toiling lumbermen, and have ahvays been most needful and popular among the laboring classes; for the use of alcohol is to them, as Ave have seen, by a physiological laAV, most injuri- ous. The North American Indian is made up mostly of muscle, and is naturally one of the most carnivorous of men. But alcohol is at the opposite extreme of diet, and, to him, spirits have proved so destructive as to receive the appella- tion of tire-water. The diseases produced by the excessive use of alcohol are more common in this country than in Europe. Delirium- tremens, Avhich occurs so often with us, is there quite rare. It is customary to attribute this to difference in climate; but, from extended observations on both continents, 1 do not believe it is due to that cause. I would ascribe it rather to the more general use of distilled spirits Avith us, which, as Ave have seen, are the Avorst possible sustenance for the mus- cles of the men Avho are clearing up and subduing the Avilds of this neAV Avorld. It is probably also, for this physiologi- cal reason, that drinking habits are most prevalent in the 166 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Southern States, where negroes perform most of the labor. AVith that change in the human system which adapts it to the vicarious support of ardent spirits, or, in other words, Avhen a man becomes an inebriate, the digestive powers become impaired, the stomach diseased, the liver enlarged, the kidneys granulated, the brain indurated. These changes are of interest to the physician, but only because they show the successive steps by which the mischief is effected. It is not incumbent upon us to stop here to describe them. It is enough for our present purpose to know that they are evi- dence of the progressive destruction, not only of life itself, but of all that renders life valuable—that moral sensibility, energy of purpose, rectitude of conduct, honor, virtue, self- control; yes, and even the nobler instincts of our animal nature, such as love of wife and children, and home and friends, and kindred—all, all are gone. The progress of the enterprise in which Ave are engaged has shoAvn the disease of Inebriety to be more prevalent than Ave had supposed. Our Secretary reports, that since the first inception of this Institution there have been over 4,000 applications for reception. What volumes of woe and misery are comprised in the unwritten history of these men ! Their casual discovery of their danger—their struggle against temptation—their consciousness of their own weakness—their dread of impending ruin—their resolution to reform, and yet their fall. Every one of them experienced all these. In addi- tion, some of them were melted by the tears of woman, wasted and wan; and of childhood famished and prematurely old. And yet so great has been the power of a. depraved appetite over them, that they have all, one by one, turned a deaf ear to these touching inducements, and divested them- selves of these tender ties, to follow in the train of the destroyer. Many of them were men of education, with refined tastes and quick moral perceptions. And they have madly SAvalloAved the fiery draught, as a refuge from their OAvn reflec- tions. Some of them had risen like stars in the firmament of literature, and shone brightly, until the cloud came between them and us, bedimming their bright rays. Others stood foremost in the ranks of science, until the angel of pestilence breathed in their faces, and they were not. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 167 But there is a part of the record yet more sorroAvful. Of the 4,000, four hundred were women. Alas! that the sacred form of woman should be thus desecrated. Hoav many of these had husbands Ave are not informed; but so many men have heard the death-knell of their fondest hopes. So many hearts, though stout as oak, have been crushed, and their arms, though strong as steel, have been palsied. Men avIio would take batteries of cannon at the point of the bayonet will quietly lie doAvn and die when this blight comes upon the floAver of their love. Yet they mostly live on with the silver cord of affection loosened and the golden bowl of hope broken at the fountain. Through life they perform aweary journey, carrying concealed within thern a cancerous disease, of which they are ashamed to complain. The Institution which Ave build is of generous origin and noble purpose. The idea upon which it is based is one of sound, practical utility, and I belieA^e the result will proATe eminently beneficial to the community and State. For the successful treatment of inebriates, seclusion is necessary. The appetite they have acquired for alcoholic stimulants is so great as to overcome the strongest resolutions of reform, while they continue exposed to temptation. Men in this con- dition, instigated by the raging thirst for spirits, would relieve their present anguish, though it should involve their final perdition. When the human system has once become adapted to this vicarious support, weeks or months are required for re-adaptation to ordinary aliment; and during this period the unfortunate patient must be not only secluded from recourse to his former habits, but he must be surrounded by pleasant associations and watched with tender solicitude, and the change which takes place in his constitution must be conducted with careful medical attention, and under sound professional discretion. But Ave can not secure this kind of isolation in general hospitals, for the associations of the lazar-house are disagreeable to these men. Nor can Ave place these patients in insane asylums, for their madness is of a special kind,Avhose treatment must be mostly medical rather than mental. And surely they are no subjects for prisons, as they have committed no crime of a heinous nature. Hence the need of this Institution. 168 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. It is impossible to estimate too highly the patient firm- ness, the unAvavering fidelity, and the earnest perseverance with which our Secretary, Dr. Turner, has for noAv seventeen years and more followed up his original idea of a hospital for the treatment of inebriates. Gradually he secured the appro- bation and support of the different professions—first the medical, and then the clerical, and then the legal, then of merchants and capitalists, men of wealth and financial influ- ence, until finally this structure arose like a genial exhalation to shed showers of peace and plenty and purity upon the land. Dr. J. EdAvard Turner is no common benefactor. His nameAvill shine forth as one of the most distinguished among the great and good men, not only of our OAvn country, but of the Avhole ciAilized world, and in all coming time. For his eminent services he has received no recompense, nor has this enterprise at any time been incumbered in progress by any salaried officers. Since the commencement, there have been in all 4,728 applicants for admission, and these have been resi- dents of every State in the Union; of California and Canada, and even of England and Holland. The good and the learned and the titled of the different nations of Europe have taken an interest in the plan\ and have inquired into the propor- tions and arrangements of the edifice, and will rejoice with us in its completion and success. And now to the inebriate, wherever he may be, and how- ever lost and ruined, we say there still is hope. Let the glad tidings spread, free as the winds of heaven—let them pass over every hill-top and fill every valley. Let the drunkard know that here is the abode of Peace—that here is the haven of Rest. Let him knoAv that, though, like a mariner at sea in a storm, his bark may be foundering on a lee shore, sur- rounded by breakers, with sails torn and cordage riven by the fury of the tempest, Avhile dark clouds are hovering over him and shutting out the day, and the sea is opening up her depths to receive him—let him know there is one safe opening in the reef through Avhich he may yet make his escape, and that, if he will manfully resume the helm and stand to his post, his dismantled ship shall safely surmount the danger, ride through the jaws of death, and find a secure refuge in the placid harbor beyond; a harbor where the broken billows HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 169 of the ocean, when admitted, subdue themselves and reduce each other to peace. Come then, 0 child of humiliation! boAved doAvn with sorrow and shame; here do Ave offer thee a safe retreat, where thou niayest be restored. True, thou hast been sleeping in the lap of Pleasure, and she has given thee over, bound, into the hands of thine enemies; but arise, in the power of thy might, and stretch forth thine arms, and the seven green withes of thy servitude will snap "like a thread of flax when it toucheth the fire." Nay, even though she may have de- prived thee of the tresses of thy reason and of the eyes of thy conscience, and compelled thee to grind in the prison- house of the Philistines, yet we will break open the gates of bondage and lead thee out, and bear thee away to this Asy- lum, where, in due time, the locks of thy strength shall grow again, and thy sight shall be restored. A word, before closing, in regard to our beautiful edifice. It has been erected by the contributions of all classes of society. The high and the Ioav, the rich and the poor, the learned and the unlearned, total-abstinence men and spirit- dealers, the bacchanal and the asceti*—all have part in its Avails. With the best wishes of the Avise and good in all lands has this structure gone up, and the stones thereof have been laid and cemented with the blessings and praises of women and children. Broken-hearted friends are alreadv a skins; Heaven to shoAver benisons upon us. and the trembling- hopes of the inebriates themselves are clinging like ivy to these walls, clothing them with liAing green. The early Spanish explorers of Florida believed that someAvhere in the interior of that continent of fioAvers there Avas a spring into Avhich if Avithered leaves and dried twigs fell, they Avere restored to their original freshness; and that Indians and birds avIio bathed in its waters were rejuvenated, and commenced their life aneAv. May the sacred cypress flourish in our grounds, and the fountain of youth burst forth in our courts. May Hygeia, Queen of Health, recline under the shade of the tree, upon the banks of the stream, while Hebe, the robust, attends upon her. May the invalid Avho bathes in these waters be healed, and have his flesh reneAved like that of a little child, as did he Avho, by the direc- 170 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. tion of the prophet, dipped himself seven times in Jordan's sacred wave. And when he comes up out of the cleansing baptism, may religion descend from Heaven, and settle upon him like a dove. May the Institution we build realize the fondest hopes of us all. May it prove a citadel to which trembling Hope may flee, when the pickets are driven in, and the outposts carried by the enemy. And may its bastions ahvays be found a sure defence, and its battlements a safe protection. May its foundations ever rest firm in the confidence of its friends; and may prosperity, like the rays of the morning sun, ever gild and illumine its turrets. Soon after the writer's return from Europe in 1845, he called upon and interested Dr. Valentine Mott in the work of founding an asylum for the medical treatment of the drunkard. He stated that he endorsed the views expressed by the writer, and that he also approved the plan of treating the inebriate in a hospital where he could be under control. From that time Dr. Mott con- tinued a friend of the enterprise, and advocated its interests outside the profession as well as in it. His able pen and eloquent words were ahvays ready to aid in this work, or to defend its cause. His wise counsel was often sought by the writer, and it was always cordially given. His wide experience and great professional ability con- tributed largely to the success of the Institution. His thorough convictions in regard to the system of control for the inebriate patient while under treatment, and his profound contempt for the plan of relying upon the drunkard's honor and pledge, enabled the founder to carry out a system of treatment and control over the patient which saved him from relapses, and at the same time guaranteed his safety from suicide. Dr. Mott was the second subscriber to the capital stock of the Asylum, and he was among the first peti- HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 171 tioners to the Legislature, praying that a part of the excise moneys of the Counties be given to the Asylum. He Avas elected President of the Corporation April 1st, 1861, and delivered his inaugural address at Bingham- ton, Nov. 20th, of the same year. On this visit to the Asylum, Dr. Mott expressed his delight with the loca- tion of the Institution, and with its substantial and beautiful building. In examining the foundations of the four rear buildings, he expressed a great desire that they should be finished in harmony with the style and workmanship of the main building, and said that he would contribute five hundred dollars then towards that object, five hundred dollars the next year, and five hun- dred dollars the third year. In due time these several sums were placed in the hands of the writer for this special purpose, and thus enabled him to carry out Dr. Mott's wishes. In the year that Dr. Mott died, he was contemplat- ing another visit to the Asylum, and was also intending to make another generous donation to the Avriter to carry out the plan of a Winter Garden. "There could be nothing better," said the Doctor, " than this beauti- ful and novel appliance of a Winter Garden for the recreation and study of the patients. It will serve to wipe out winter and make a perpetual summer. No one can too highly value such an appliance to a great Asy- lum where the patients are largely made up of intelli- gent and educated men. I also approve of your con- templated plan of laying out the grounds of the Asy- lum in such a way that the native trees of America can be brought together by its roadsides and its pathways. I would, however, suggest adding to your plan the trees of all countries AAiiich will grow upon your elevated grounds. Accomplish this Avork, and you wull interest 172 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. every patient and every stranger Avho may walk beneath their shade." On the day of his inauguration, Dr. Mott talked with Chancellor Wahvorth and other members of the board of trustees, and urged that the founder be recog- nized as a stockholder in the Corporation; his reasons being that the founder had the greatest interest in pro- tecting the life of the Institution and watching over its Avelfare. " To-day," said the Doctor, " there is not a stockholder but has the power to vote the founder out of the Corporation and to keep him out; and the man who has contributed more to the building up of the Institution than all the other stockholders together, becomes a cipher, powerless in upholding his rights. If this Asylum had been burdened with salaried officers, clerks and agents, there would not have been laid a sin- gle stone in its structure, all its funds would have been absorbed by expenses. The expensive plan of paying its officers, clerks and agents, would have made this enterprise a failure—a total failure—and none know it better than the trustees of this Corporation wiio have had the experience of carrying subscription books in their pockets for one year without being able to raise one single dollar to its capital stock. The trustees also knoAv that resolution after resolution has been fruit- lessly passed by the board to procure agents to assist the founder in this part of his work. It will be but a few short years before the present members of this board, Avho have been associated with its founder, wall have passed aAvay, and the knoAvledge of these efforts, struggles and sacrifices made in its behalf, will have been forgotten and buried in their graves. It is left for us who have Avatched the growth of this institution, to see that justice be done to the founder without waiting for the founder to demand that justice-" HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 17M At the meeting of the board of trustees, held in the city of New York, Dec. 10, 1862, the following resolu- tions of Dr. Mott were unanimously passed by the board: Whereas, J. Edward Turner, the founder of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, has devoted eighteen years to found- ing the Inebriate Asylum, and Whereas, The said Turner has paid his expenses in trav- eling in Europe, in visiting the hospitals and asylums of his own country, in visiting the cities and towns of his oavii State, and in visiting the Legislature of the State during eleven sessions, and Whereas, The said Turner has paid all the expenses of the agents and clerks of said Inebriate Asylum, therefore, Resolved, That said Turner shall be represented in the subscription fund of the New York State Inebriate Asylum to the amount of money which said Turner has paid toAvards founding said NeAvYork State Inebriate Asylum with interest added thereto. Resolved, That said Turner shall also be credited in the subscription fund of said Inebriate Asylum Avith a salary for his past services equal to the salary and perquisites received by the Superintendent of the State Insane Asylum at Utica, with interest added thereto. Judge Doolittle stated to the founder that he had, through the suggestion of Dr. Mott, called upon two of the trustees of the State Insane Asylum at Utica and obtained from them the fact that Dr. John P. Gray, the Medical Superintendent of said State Insane Asylum, was receiving an annual salary and perquisites amount- ing to seven thousand dollars. Ex-Senator S. S. Lowery, an old resident of Utica, and for many years an active trustee of the State Insane Asylum, stated to the founder that Dr. John P. Gray, the Medical Superintendent of the said insane Asylum, 174 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. was receiving annually a salary and perquisites amount- in^ to more than seven thousand dollars. The amount of salary and perquisites received by Dr. John P. Gray for twenty-three years of services amounted to one hundred and sixty-one thousand dollars, and that the interest on the same for twenty-one years would have amounted to one hundred and seven thousand, nine hundred and forty dollars, making the sum total two hundred and sixty-eight thousand, nine hundred and forty dollars. The founder has added five years services to the eighteen, which services terminated in 1867. Thus it will be seen by the reader that the founder was entitled, under Dr. MotUs resolution, to receive a salary, perquisites, and interest, equal to Dr. Gray's, and that said salary, perquisites, and interest, were to be credited to the founder as a subscription to the capital stock of the New York State Inebriate Asylum. It would not be stating too much if we should declare that the NeAV York State Inebriate Asylum had, (before Dr. Willard Parker became its head,) the most substantial, scientific, and medical indorsement of any hospital in our country. There was not a physician (during Dr. MotUs connection with the Asylum) in our state occupying a prominent position in his profession, who had not cheerfully and heartily subscribed his money to build this Asylum. Their number amounted to more than nine hundred, and they had subscribed more than twelve thousand dollars. The folloAving is a copy of a petition presented to the Legislature of this State, which sets forth the medical opinion of more than fifteen hundred prominent physi- cians, as regards the importance of establishing the Inebriate Asylum; We, the undersigned, physicians and citizens of the State of NeAV York, would respectfully call the attention of your HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 175 honorable body to the vital importance of an immediate appropriation of a sum of money sufficient to assist to build the Ncav York State Inebriate Asylum. We, as practitioners, have long felt the necessity of having an asylum, where the inebriate could be medically treated with sufficient restraint to control the patient. Without such an institution, the physician has been com- pelled to turn from his patient discouraged, disheartened, and defeated—and the victim of this painful malady, be he rich or poor, educated or uneducated, alike must find a drunk- ard's grave. With this institution Ave can save hundreds Avho are noAvcroAvding our insane asylums, inundating our courts, dying in our prisons, and perishing in our streets. We are not inclined to urge the argument of economy in establishing the Inebriate Asylum, (although Ave have every reason to believe that it will be a self-supporting institution,) when fifty-five per cent of all our insanity, and sixty-eight per cent of all our idiocy, springs directly or indirectly from inebriety alone. We regard it as a matter of duty so sacred, that until discharged. Ave have no right, as a moral and enlightened people, to finish our great internal improvements, erect monuments in commemoration of battles, public works to art, or even costly temples to God. We maintain that our whole lives spent in our professional duties, and as private citizens, go to proAre that, in the pres- ent state of society, there is no institution so much needed as an asylum for inebriates. Medical science demands it, and every thing sacred and good in our country demands it. We commend this great and philanthropic object to your enlightened minds and noble impulses, trusting that the Ine- briate Asylum will be an ornament to the State of New York, and stand among the brightest tributes of humanity which our country or the Avorld has ever created for the benefit of mankind. (Signed.) Professor Valentine Mott, M. D., LL. D., Professor John W. Francis, M. D., LL. D., Professor Martin Payn, M. D., Professor Gunning S. Bedford, M. D., Professor John D. Metcalf, M. D., Professor Robert Watts, M. D., Professor William H. Van Buren, M. D., Professor John AV. Draper, M. D., Professor Joseph M. Smith, M. D. Professor C. R. Gilman, M. D., Professor Alonzo Clark, M. D., Professor Alex. H. Stevens, M. D., Professor R. Ogden 176 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Doremus, M. D., Professor Henry G. Cox, M.D., Professor B.Fordyce Barker, M. D., Professor John Torrey, M. D., Professor J. M. Carnochan, M. D., Professor A. C. Post, M. D., Professor James R. AATood, M. D., Professor Edmond R. Peaslee, M. D., Professor Edward H. Parker, M. D., Professor Edward H. Davis, M. D., J. Marion Sims, M. D., LL. D., Professor Alden March, M. D., Professor James H. Armsby, M. D., Professor Thomas Hunn, M. D., Professor James McNaughton, M. D., Professor Howard Townsend, M. D., Professor J. R.Quackenbush, M. D., Professor James P.White, M. D., Professor Frank H. Hamilton, M. D., Professor Thos. F. Rochester, M. D., Professor E.M. Moore, M.D., Professor Alex. B. Mott, M. D., Professor John Swinburne, M. D., Professor Chas. E. Isaacs, M. D., Professor B. AV. Budd, M. D., Professor AA'illiam Detmold, M. D., and fourteen hundred and fifty other physicians of the State. The State Medical Society, at their meeting held at Albany, February 8th, 1857, fully indorsed the Inebriate Asylum, and unanimously adopted a resolution offered by George Burr, M. D., recommending it to the favor and earnest support not only of the legislature of the State, but to the public at large. The folloAving is a copy of the memorial of the Onondaga Medical Society, addressed to the legislature, January 27th, 1857: "The undersigned, your memorialists, the officers and members of the Onondaga Medical Society, have watched Avith much interest the progress made by Dr. Turner and others, in establishing an Inebriate Asylum, and have re- joiced at the success which has croAvned their labors. The spirit Avhich has been exhibited by our citizens, needs but to be seconded by your honorable body to realize the establish- ment of an institution which in the opinion of your memori- alists, will proAre to be one of the most important and bene- ficial, in its influence and results, which was ever devised for an unfortunate portion of our fellow-citizens. From a long experience in the duties of that profession which has brought us in daily contact Avith the victims of a diseased appetite, Ave have been forced to the conclusion that an institution in which the patient could be medically and morally treated, would prove to be of greater benefit, socially, politically, and charitably, than many other institutions of its nature in our land. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 177 "Your memorialists believe that the system devised by the friends of that undertaking is founded upon correct, scientific and pathological views, and that if it shall appear worthy of your honorable body to lend the needed assist- ance, in conjunction with that which has been so promptly extended by your fellow-citizens at large. Ave shall readily experience that benefit which can be realized in no other manner, and which Ave sincerely believe will result in a success more perfect than may be expected by those less acquainted with the many forms and characteristics of this unfortunate and extensive malady. "Your memorialists therefore pray that public assistance maybe extended to an undertaking which will prove a public benefit, and that private confidence and individual efforts may be generously seconded and encouraged by the guard- ians of the public welfare; and your memorialists will ever pray. "In testimony whereof, Avitness the seal of our Society, and [L. S.] the signature of its President and Secretary. [Signed], A. B. SHIPMAN, M. D., Prest. "William Maxlius Smith, Sec'y. "Syracuse, January 27, 1857." The editors of the leading medical journals in this country are strong advocates of this Asylum; and the prominent superintendents of the insane asylums in the United States have expressed, in their reports, the neces- sity of having an institution for the control and medical treatment of the inebriate. The able and experienced Dr. Skae, of the Royal Edinburgh Asylum, in his report in 1854, says: "Of all the cases of insanity which have come under my treatment, there are none which have given me so much trouble as those who have lost self- control by the use of stimulants. Some legislative enactment for the control of such patients, and their treatment in an asylum especially set apart for their use, would save many lives, and many families from shame, grief, the loss of property, and total ruin." 12 178 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Alexander Peddie, M. D., F. R. S. P. E., of Edin- burgh, in a very able pamphlet, which he has just pub- lished on the subject of establishing an inebriate asylum in Scotland, says: " It is, I consider, as much the duty of a government to control and medically treat the dipso- maniac, as it is to stay the hand of the homicide or suicide in their insane impulses." Among the petitioners for an appropriation to this Asylum are more than sixty leading judges of our courts; more than six hundred eminent lawyers; more than five hundred leading clergymen; more than fifteen hundred distinguished physicians; more than two thousand lead- ing merchants; and more than three thousand active farmers and mechanics of our State. The petitioners to the legislature for an appropriation for this institution, and the subscribers to its fund, represent almost fifty per cent of all the property of the State. The great work of founding the New York State Inebriate Asylum has attracted the attention of the leading physicians and philanthropists of Europe, so much so that Switzerland has already begun a similar institution. England, Scotland, Holland, and Denmark, are all taking initiatory steps to found such hospitals. extracts from dr. mott's letters written to the founder in 1864 and 1865. Dr. Mott wrote the founder in June, 1864, that a clergyman had called at his office and had given him a history of his inebriate wife, which history embraced a phase of this hereditary disease. The clergyman first stated that while a student at college he became acquainted with his wife, and his engagement extended for six years. During his entire courtship he never dis- covered that his intended had the least morbid desire for stimulants, and whenever she was offered wine or ale HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 179 she declined, by stating she was a teetotaler. Neither did I learn during our acquaintance of ten years that her father had died a drunkard, or that her youngest brother had followed the fate of his father. These facts were all concealed from me. My wife has three brothers and one sister living, all of whom are well and sober people. They were all born when my wife's father was a sober and prosperous man, but misfortune overtook him and he became a bankrupt; mortification and chagrin fol- lowed and he became a victim of intemperance, and in a few short years he died of delirium tremens. My wife inherited the tendency to her father's disease, and she has been a drunkard for more than twelve years, and is physically and mentally incompetent to take care of her little ones or even herself. My household is the saddest home which the human eye ever looked upon. What can I do to relieve my children of their insane mother, and save her from a drunkard's death and a drunkard's eternity? No one can realize the sad future of my dear children more than myself. They have inherited an intensified form of all the physical conditions of their grandfather and mother, and what a fate awaits them! I have learned that no lecture upon moral ethics, no sermon upon predestination can prevent or change the hereditary taint of dipsomania. The victim must be medically treated in a hospital; the model home or its imitation has no appliances to treat such a disease. My wife is now consuming a quart of gin daily with one ounce of absinthe. A few months since I attempted to control her appetite by diminishing her daily ration to one-half pint of gin. In thirty-six hours she developed suicidal mania and attempted to destroy herself. As my home did not afford the proper restraint and medical attendance, I was compelled to 180 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. restore her usual alloAvance of gin and absinthe. I have called to-day, continued the clergyman, to reneAv my application to have my wife admitted as a patient to the Binghamton Inebriate Asylum. I hope for the sake of my sick wife and her helpless children that your board of trustees have decided to admit female patients to its ward. I then stated (writes Dr. Mott) to the reverend gentleman that the board of trustees, to whom the ques- tion of admitting female patients to the Asylum was referred, have, after a long discussion, decided that it would be inconsistent with the well being of the institu- tion to treat the two classes in the same hospital. I have for a number of years been advocating a plan of build- ing a hospital for the exclusive medical treatment of inebriate women, and I have no doubt that the honor of founding such a hospital will be accorded to the man who has, through his own efforts, built the first Inebriate Asylum. ***** In the month of July Dr. Mott wrote the founder that a gentleman had called upon him and given a full history of his once able and accomplished daughter. He said that his daughter's grandfather was one of the ablest professors in all New England, and as a writer upon theological subjects he had no superior. When publishing his metaphysical works the professor's daugh- ter, then but fifteen years of age, corrected the proofs of his books more rapidly than himself, and for a number of years she assisted in his literary labors. The professor and daughter were both victims of opium, and became slaves to these conditions from ovenvork. The daughter of Dr. Mott's informant inherited all the intellectual powers of her grandfather and mother. At the age of ten she was as far advanced in her studies as a Fresh- man at Yale. At the age of eighteen she wrote for two HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 181 Aveekly papers, and had produced two magazine articles which attracted the attention of men like Irving and Bryant. At the age of twenty-five she w^as receiving for her literary work twenty-five hundred dollars a year, and at thirty-fiAe her pen earned her more than four thousand dollars annually. At the age of twenty she abandoned society and lived in her literary world, devot- ing eighteen hours out of the twenty-four to her literary work. To keep up her mental activity she began to stimulate and use opium. She found at first that she could produce more work under the influence of stimu- lants in five hours than she had before in ten. This co-laborer in the form of stimulant and opiate had to be increased, until she consumed one pint and a half of Avhiskey and four ounces of laudanum daily. At this period of her literary life she collapsed into a stupor, and at times manifested all the symptoms of dementia. x\s her mental poAvers had succumbed to her physical conditions she was compelled to abandon all mental labor, but she demanded her stimulants and opiates, and kept up her daily rations, with a strong desire to increase them. At times she became very excitable and had delusions, in which she described in the most graphic and masterly manner events, widen had never taken place, or characters which had never existed. While in this mental condition she was in conversation most interesting, and at times would recite whole pages from Virgil, and quote largely from the old poets in Greek and Latin. When this mental excitement had passed away she relapsed into a stupor, which lasted from ten to twelve hours. "What can I do for my daughter to save her from mental annihilation beside sending her to the mad-house ?" To her father it seemed that the treatment and surround- 182 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. ings found in a lunatic asylum would produce mental destruction and death. The inebriate asylurm seemed to him the only hospital which could offer the patholog- ical treatment her case demanded. Dr. Mott stated to the founder that a distinguished citizen of Albany had called upon him but a short time since, and stated that his only son was a drunkard of the most dangerous type, and that while he was laboring under delirium tremens he had threatened the life of his wife, and that he wished to commit him to the Inebriate Asylum for six months, with the privilege of visiting his wife once a week at the Binghamton hotel. I replied, said Dr. Mott, that no patient was received in the Inebriate Asylum for less time than one year; some cases required two years of medical treatment, some three years and some were incurable. It must be understood that the Inebriate Asylum has no power to perform miracles, its great work must be accomplished through its medical treatment; absolute control over its patients and a sufficient time to accomplish its mission. I would as soon allow the patient in a hospital for operative surgery or a patient's friend to dictate to me how long I should be in treating a compound fracture, the exact time I should take off the bandages, the day I should remove the splints or discharge my patient, as for a patient in an Inebriate Asylum or for the patient's friend to dictate to me the time for his medical treat- ment, the removal of restraint or his final discharge. In the case of a premature discharge of the patient with the fractured limb, there would be a chance of his becoming an incurable cripple and a burden to society, Avhile in the case of the premature discharge of the ine- briate from the Asylum, it might involve his OAvn death or the death of his nearest friend, The head of a hos- HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 183 pital would be guilty of a crime if he should entertain the suggestion of the inebriate or his friend. The pro- position to have your son visit his wife at the hotel must be absolutely refused. From the history of your son's hereditary disease, it would not be safe to trust him upon his pledge or honor. These moral and social appliances have all failed in his case and would be the height of folly to repeat. This experiment tried would bring a great disappointment to his wife, a double dis- appointment to yourself and a relapse to your son, and the first declaration of your indignation would be that the managers of the New YTork State Inebriate Asylum were either fools or knaves, and that your money had been received by a hospital under false representations and pretences. * * * * The wife of an ex-professor visited the Inebriate Asylum in the winter of 1865. After she had talked with the assistant physician, Dr. John Hill, she visited the ward of the hospital and conversed with a number of the patients. On her return home she Avas joined by her husband in the city of Ncav Y/ork wiiere they con- sulted with Dr. Valentine Mott, the President of the Institution. Dr. Mott stated to the founder that the lady gave him a full history of her inebriate son, and also her visit at the Asylum. She stated that her fam- ily physician, Dr. Hoffman, had informed her that her son could not survive another attack of delirium tremens, and that he should be immediately committed by the order of the court to the Inebriate Asylum for one year or more, as the case might demand, and that her son's disease was a Avell defined and marked case of heredi- tary dipsomania and that such a malady required as much restraint over its victim, as any violent case of insanity now confined in an insane asylum. All religi- 184 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. ous and moral appliances had utterly failed to save or restrain him at home. The professor's wife, in speaking of the institution, complained that the asylum, as she saw it, looked more like a mad-house than a home. The fenders upon its windows and the locks upon the doors were offensive to the patients and repulsive to their friends. The regulations under which the patients' rooms were examined tAvice in twenty-four hours, (at midday and midnight), robbed the patients of a contin- ued rest in their sleeping hours and invaded their peace in their waking moments. The principle upon which the Asylum is organized, to ignore all pledges and all honor, she thought, Avas degrading to the inebriates' self- respect and revolting to his manhood. I also learned, said the lady, that the patients were not allowed to visit their parents at the Binghamton hotels, and under no circumstances were they permitted to visit the town or any other place outside the Asylum grounds without being accompanied by one of the assistant physicians. In short, I found all the patients whom I talked with in a state of mental excitement and discontent. After Dr. Mott had listened to the lady and heard her suggestions, which elaborated a plan of organizing and conducting an Inebriate Asylum without a physical restraint over its patients, the Doctor replied that he had a professional experience of treating the inebriate without restraint for sixty years, and every case Avhich came under his treat- ment was a failure. Every law enacted to commit the inebriate to the Asylum adjudges him a dangerous man to remain at large, and the rules and regulations for his control were created from the necessity to prevent the victim of alcohol from wasting his estate, doing violence to his neighbor or taking his own life. In a word, to prevent your inebriate son from pawning the family sil- HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 185 ver, from forging his father's name or taking his own life, all of which he has done or attempted to do in his madness. Y^et you would, under these diseased condi- tions, trust him again and again, until he perished by his own hand or became a murderer. To demonstrate how the kindest of men can be changed into a brute by the throbs of physical pain, was fully illustrated in one of my most celebrated surgical operations per- formed long before chloroform was used by the sur- geon. I was engaged in performing a surgical opera- tion upon a gentleman of wealth and culture. It required four strong men to hold firmly my patient upon the table. It also demanded great nerve and skill in using the knife, as the operation involved the larger arteries and veins of the body. When but half through the operation, my patient, while suffering the greatest agony, gave vent to his feelings by spitting into my face and filling my eyes with tobacco juice. This unexpected compliment retarded the operation, but I soon removed the tobacco from my eyes and finished successfully my work. My patient recovered and lived many years. So it is that the patients whom you conversed with at the Asylum were suffering from a diseased stomach and brain, which caused them as much bodily pain as any patient who suffers from the surgeon's knife. Under such torment of the body, the inebriate will give vent to his feelings by spitting upon his benefactors and inventing all manner of falsehoods against the Asylum. Dr. Mott wrote the founder July 1st, 1864, that a professor of a college had called to see him, and had given the history of his wife, who was a desperate opium- eater. The professor stated that his wife had been using narcotics for more than ten years, and that her daily allow7- ance had reached two hundred and sixty grains of opium. 186 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. All his efforts to save his Avife from this habit had failed, and his family physician had recommended that she be sent to an asylum, and nothing short of a perfect restraint could save her. To stop her rations of opium, he had resorted to a plan by which he had ordered the village druggist not to sell his wife narcotics or stimulants. The second day after this order was given, he was compelled to countermand it and order that his wife should have one hundred grains daily. The effect of depriving her of its use was to transform her into a raving maniac. Under its influence she drove her children and myself out of the house. It required two strong men and our physician to prevent her from destroying herself. What can be done for her, said the professor, as the Inebriate Asylum can not receive female patients I I would sug- gest, said Dr. Mott, that she be sent to an insane asylum, and controlled and medically treated. * In a letter from Dr. Mott, dated August 23d, 1864, he wrote the founder that a lady had called upon him and donated to the Asylum one hundred dollars, to be invested in two row-boats, to be used exclusively by the patients, and said the boats on the Susquehanna river would give the patients both pleasure and exercise. That in addition to the amusements already established, such as bowling, billiards, gymnasium, and outdoor sports, the Asylum would be well equipped in its appli- ances for the exercise of the patients. After she had commented on the winter gardens, she stated that when the conservatory was finished, she would present to the Asylum a large bronze fountain, which should be in keep- ing with the decorations of the winter gardens. After speaking of her son, who was a patient at the Asylum, she said that he was a graduate of Brown University, and Harvard Law School, and was once connected with one HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 187 of the leading laAV firms of the city of New YTork. For ten years my son has been a victim to inebriety, and that period of my son's life brought to our household miseries and burdens which then seemed more than a mother's heart could bear. I accompanied my son to the Asylum, and oAving to his feeble condition I was compelled to take tAvo of my male servants with me to take care of him. When I saAv him landed safely in the Asylum and comfortably surrounded in his room by medical attend- ance, I then and there stated to the physicians of the hospital that this moment was the first time in ten years that I could feel that my son was safe against his OAvn suicidal mania, or my family were secure from his homi- cidal madness. That no person living could value the importance of the Asylum more than I did, and that my husband and myself would in some future time endoAV a free bed in the institution, and after my son had been cured, or had been cared for during the remainder of his life, (if he proves to be an incurable,) then a poor man's son should fill our free bed forever. Dr. Mott's letter of November 3d, 1864, to the writer, contained an account of a gentleman's call at his office. This gentleman wished to procure a discharge for his step-son, who had been committed to the Asylum for one year. He stated that he had visited the Asylum, had seen its superintendent, and had requested its exeu- tive officer to discharge his step-son within three Aveeks time. His application Avas not granted by its disobliging medical chief. He also gave me a full history of his inebriate step-son, which embraced the history of three generations of the same family. After I had listened, writes Dr. Mott, to the sad history of this family, I stated to the gentleman that his step-son was an hereditary drunkard, and that his disease could be traced to the 188 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. grandfather's first glass, from Avhich the son and grand- son inherited the malady. His step-son was a dangerous man to remain at large, and that he had so declared in an affidavit filed in the court. The only legal right to discharge a patient at the Asylum was vested in the court. To accomplish this object, it was left for him to prove to the court that his statement declaring that his step-son was dangerous to remain at large, and that he had threatened the life of his mother while laboring under alcoholic delusions, and that the affidavits of the three other respectable citizens who had sworn to the same statement of facts, were false. The records also set forth that on the day your son arrived at the institu- tion, he attacked the assistant physician and inflicted upon his head a scalp wound of a dangerous character, and kicked one of the nurses so violently that it produced hernia. All of Avhich proved beyond doubt that the welfare of society demanded his restraint in an asylum. He is as irresponsible for the crimes he may commit as if he had inherited homicidal insanity from other causes. The responsibility now rests with the court whether this dangerous man be permitted to go at large. The Inebriate Asvlum's mission is not to take the responsibility of turning upon society this class of its patients. Mrs. G. and daughter visited the Asylum in the fall of 1864 and remained a guest of the Institution for three days. Most of their time was spent with their son and brother. They accompanied him in his walks and drives and became familiar with the routine of hos- pital life. They were intensely interested in the history of the patients of the Institution and were sympathizers in all their doings and sayings. As soon as these ladies returned to their home in the city of New York, they made HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 189 a call on Dr. Valentine Mott, the President of the Cor- poration, and related to him the history of their visit to the Asylum. The first request Airs. G. made to me, writes Dr. Mott, was to grant her son the privilege of visiting his home for one month. She then gave me a minute account of her three days visit at the hospital, and then stated that her son was discontented at the Institution, and the sole reason for his nervous irrita- bility was that he was deprived of his liberty and that he was watched over as closely as if he had been a homicidal case of insanity. He was not allowed tobacco, money or postage stamps and he was also deprived of the privilege of opening his express pack- ages, and every check was put upon him as if he had been a case of suicidal insanity. In talking with the patients, said the lady to Dr. Mott, the rigid discipline of the Asylum was oppressive to all but one patient, and he was an army officer and a graduate of West Point. This loving mother, writes Dr. Mott, seems to complain more about the restraint put upon the patient, and the horrible name • by which the Institution is known, than all other of its rules and regulations. Its name, said the lady, is disagreeable enough to drive the patients from its wards, and prevents hundreds of fathers and mothers from sending their sons to such a hospital. If the naming of the Asylum had been chosen with any degree of interest and sympathy for the inebriate or for his friends, it wrould have been called a Home for Inebriates, and this name would have led its founder to have made it more like a home than a jail. I have a friend who has an only son who is a desperate drunkard, and yet, under these terrible conditions and circum stances, she will not consent to send her son to the Ine- briate Asylum because its name implies that all who are 190 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. sent to its wards are homicidal cases of madness, dan- gerous to society and incurable. After hearing the story of my old friend who had been a kind neighbor to me for more than forty years. I replied by stating that I had not the power to alloAV her son to visit his home. As he Avas a committed patient the authority was lodged with the court, and not with the President of the Corporation, to decide that question. Your preju- dices against the corporate name, and your hatred of its management, would naturally arise in a loving and indul- gent mother. The professional experience of a life-time, said the Doctor to the lady, convinces me that every restraint inaugurated in the Asylum to prevent the vic- tim of inebriety from destroying himself or destroying his family, is necessary to carry out the fundamental principles upon which the Inebriate Asylum was founded. To call a pest-house a church is a fraud which would not change the loathsomeness of small-pox, its treatment or even its restraint. To name a yellow fever hospital a home, would be a trick which Avould not change the control of yellow fever or make it less than an epi- demic. To christen a lunatic asylum a college, would not by this device induce more lunatics to enter its halls, diminish its restraint over its patients, or exclude from its wards its medical treatment. To name an ine- briate asylum a home, with all its appliances to control and medically treat successfully the suicidal, homicidal dipsomaniac, (which all inebriates become before their friends send them to the inebriate hospital) would be, to my mind, a fraud upon frauds. Note.—It was the custom of the Superintendent of the Asylum to make a weekly report of the sanitary condition of the hospital and to give a history of each patient at the time of his admission, and report the same to Dr. Mott. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 191 Dr Mott was connected with the work of founding the Inebriate Asylum twenty-one years, and he was its President four years, from April 1st, 1861, to the time of his death in 1865. The following resolutions, offered by Henry T. Tuckerman on the death of Valentine Mott, M. D., LL. D., and late President of the New York State Ine- briate Asylum, were unanimously passed by the Board: Whereas, It has pleased an AllAVise Providence to remove from the earthly sphere of his benign activity our honored and faithful President, Dr. Valentine Mott, therefore, Resolved, That his prompt and earnest co-operation in the establishment of this institution by giving it the high sanction of his professional influence and personal advocacy, imparted an auspicious impulse to a ne\v and noble charity, whereby it early gained the sympathy and respect of the public. Resolved, That as the fourth President of the NeAV York State Inebriate Asylum, Dr. Mott sustained its claims with wisdom, dignity, and eloquence, and leaves to the trustees and all friends of the institution, the most grateful memories of cordial and courteous intercourse and efficient efforts in behalf of acause, alike dear to him as a physician and aman. Resolved, That we deeply mourn his loss, not only as a steadfast and respected representative of the great sanitary and moral reform identified with the asylum, but asaman of original genius in surgical science; a patriotic citizen, and a Christian gentleman. Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the family of Dr. Mott, with the assurances of the deep sympathy of the trustees of this institution in their great bereavement. The committee who were empowered by the Board of Trustees to erect two monuments in the Chapel of the Asylum to the memory of its late presidents, held a meeting in the city of New York soon after the death of Dr. Mott. The said committee decided to raise by subscription fifteen hundred dollars, and to erect three 192 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. monuments in said Chapel to the memory of its late presidents. The founder procured from fifteen trustees the pledge of one hundred dollars each. Dr. Parker's management, not being in accordance with the law under which the Inebriate Asylum was organized, de- feated the plans of the committee, and the As}ium to-day has not a record upon its walls, showing that there had been a Mott, a Francis, a Butler, or a Walworth con- nected with its history. It avouIcI be well to state that not a Trustee connected with the illegal election, or Avith the sale of the Asylum's property to the State, ever subscribed a dollar toAvards the Monument Fund. Note.—The Trustees Avho subscribed to this Fund of Si,500, Avere Millard Fillmore, Samuel Nelson, R. H. Walworth, John A. Dix, \Ym. T. McCoun, Joseph Mullin, Chas. H. Doolittle, Thomas W. Olcott, E. F. Shan- nard, William E. Dodge, James AV. Beekman, Henry T. Tuckerman, Samuel B. Ruggles, Noah AA'orrell and J. EdAvard Turner. CHAPTER VI The following is an extract from the report of the founder, made to the Legislature of the State of New Yrork, April 20th, 1866. The quotation shows the marked resemblance of alcoholic mania and its delusions to that of insanity and its delusions; and it also shoAvs that the number of insane and idiotic persons in the United States is greater than in any other civilized coun- try ; that of the dangerous classes in this country there is a larger percentage produced by constitutional and hereditary inebriety than from all other causes combined; and that a larger quantity of alcoholic spirits is manu- factured in the United States than in any other country. ' We quote the following from the able report of Dr. Hills, Superintendent of the Central Ohio Lunatic Asylum: " 'Intemperance is a frequent direct cause of insanity, but I believe it to be much more fearful in its influence in laying broad and deep the foundations of constitutional insanity. Many instances come to light, on close examination, in which even temporary intemperance of the parent has caused con- stitutional defects of the offspring—sometimes physical and at other times mental. In one case of insanity, represented ns not constitutional, but believed, from its character, to be so, it appeared, on full investigation, that the father had been a very hard drinker from early life, and that one son, although capable of doing business, was of dull intellect; the second was our patient, having become insane at thirty years of age, and is probably incurable. The third son was demented from an early age, and is noAv in a county infirmary. The fourth child has epilepsy and is imbecile. The two eldest, are mar- ried, having children, some of whom can scarcely hope to escape the penalty in after years. 13 "(193) 194 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. " 'In another case presenting evidences of constitutional taint, inquiries failed to develop hereditary predisposition. The patient died. In a feAv months his brother was sent to us, also represented as not hereditary. Further investiga- tions developed the fact that in the earlier years of the father's married life he Avas strictly temperate, had four children, all yet remaining healthy and sound. From reATerses of fortune he became discouraged and intemperate for some years, hav- ing in this period four children, tAvo of whom we had now received into the asylum; a third one was idiotic, and the fourth epileptic. He then reformed in habit, had three more children, all iioav grown to maturity, and to this period remaining sound and healthy. " ' From another county a parallel case came to light; four children, born to the parents in a period of intemperance, suffering the consequences; the first, a daughter grown up and married, had three children before insanity appeared. It then Avas developed slowly and without any apparent direct cause. After two or three years it settled into demen- tia, and she was discharged as incurable. The second one, a daughter also, and married, with t\vo children, Avas brought to us in a state of acute puerperal mania, and after six months treatment AAas discharged recovered, and still remains so after three years lapse of time. I have little doubt, how- ever, she will relapse at some future period. The third, also a daughter, is an idiot, now mature in years. The fourth died, when young, with fits. Four children, born previously to the period of intemperance, and two since reformation, are all sound and healthy.' "You will see, therefore, that by providing asylums for dipsomaniacs, you will relieve the in sane and idiotic hospitals. It is wise for every State to provide liberally for its great charitable and humane institutions; by so doing every com- munity will be relieved of burdens, and every family of a skeleton. "There is a revenue received by the United States Govern- ment, one per cent of Avhich is sufficiently large to found dipsomaniac asylums in each State and support the same, without calling upon State or individual aid. It is the reve- nue which the Government receives from the sale of spiritu- ous and fermented liquors. "There is a larger quantity of alcoholic spirits manufac- tured in the United States than in any other country. There is more revenue received by our government from taxes on HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 195 liquors than is received from the same source by any other nation. More spirituous and fermented liquors are consumed by Americans than by any other people; hence Ave have more dipsomaniacs, and the mortality by this disease will continue to increase in a fearful ratio, until some means are provided for its control and treatment besides the jail, the prison and the penitentiary. We have to-day a larger ratio of the insane and idiotic to the number of our population than any other nation in the Avorld, as the folloAving statistics will show: In France the ratio of the insane and idiotic is........................1 to 1,000 In England the ratio of the insane and idiotic is.....................1 to 793 In Scotland the ratio of the insane and idiotic is.....................1 to 664 In Prussia the ratio of the insane and idiotic is.......................1 to 1,100 In Austria, the ratio of the insane and idiotic is.......................1 to 1,050 In the United States the ratio of the insane and idiotic is........1 to 622 " In extending our investigations on insanity and idiocy, Ave have found in traveling through the northern countries of Europe, where alcoholic drinks are used to excess, that the number of the insane and the idiotic is greater in proportion to the population than in the south of Europe, where the Aveak wines are used as a beverage. We have been compelled to differ with some physicians, Avho have made the ratio of insanity and idiocy produced by dipsomania, much less than our statistics sIioav. Their erroneous results were reached by their mistaking the exciting for the remote cause of these maladies. Such mistakes are readily made, because the friends of the patient often wish to conceal the true cause of his insanity or imbecility, especially when it is dipsomania. "Dipsomania is truly a national disease vvitli us, carrying desolation to every household, and producing more insanity and idiocy than all other causes; laving waste the brightest intellects among the counselors and defenders of the nation. A state or a nation has no greater interest than to save the Note.—According to the census of 1840, there Avas in the United States 14,641 insane and idiotic persons. For the four following census years, the returns of the insane and idiotic are as follows: 1850, 33,397; 1860, 42,972; 1870, 61,959; 1880, 168,892. In the State of New York, the insane and idiotic numbered 9,839 in 1870, and 20,195 in 1880; in a popu- lation of 5,0S2, 871. This Avas nearly six thousand in excess of the whole number of insane and idiotic in the United States forty years before, and in an aggregate population then of 17,069,453. 196 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. mental and physical energies of its people. To accomplish this is to prevent the cause, or provide for the control and cure of a disease which is sapping its vitals. A nation Avhich is receiving more than forty millions of dollars annually from a traffic Avhich is the cause of its physical and mental decay, without providing a single dollar to repair this injury, must be untrue to the best interests of its people, and its ruin be its own monument of shame. "We would most respectfully suggest to the governors of the States the importance of recommending to the legislatures thereof the passage of a resolution wherein the senators and representatives of the respective States, in the National Con- gress, shall be instructed to enact a laAV by Avhich one per cent of all moneys collected in each State, as a revenue tax imposed on the sales of spirituous and fermented liquors, shall be appropriated to said State, to be used by said State exclusively in founding and supporting dipsomaniac hospitals. "We noAv propose to shoAv the strong resemblance of dipsomania to acute and chronic mania. Dipsomania under- mines the moral sensibility of its victim; deprives him of the knowledge of right and Avrong; destroys all the ties of affec- tion that bind him to wife, parent and children—in a Avord, it makes him a liar, a thief, a murderer, a monster and a demon. "The first case AA'e mention in comparing dipsomania with acute and chronic mania, is Avhere the religious instincts are excited and become the leading passion. M---, a gentleman fifty-five years of age, married and the father of a large family, was committed to the asylum by an order of the court. He had been a hard drinker for over twelve years, and had one attack of delirium tremens. For the six months previous to his entering the institution, he had been stimulating to such an extent that he Avas taken home six nights in the week in a state of insensibility. As soon as he returned to conscious- ness he would appoint family prayers, talk upon religious Note.—The United States Government received from the Internal Rev- enue for the manufacturing and sale of distilled and fermented liquors for the year 1865, $40,000; for the year 1882, $84.628,331; tax on beer is not added, 1883, $73,407,361; tax on beer is not added, 1884, $53,749,246; tax on beer is not added, 1885, $54,303,838; tax on beer included, 1887, $90,000,000. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 197 subjects, spend hours in reading the Bible and singing sacred songs. At all times he would declare that he never drank spirituous liquors, wondered Avhy he should have been sent to the asylum, and believed that his family had conspired against him and were his bitter enemies. His devotional spirit continued during his stay at the institution. He Avas ahvays at morning and evening prayers, and at the service on the Sabbath. On ordinary topics he appeared rational, and talked about his business affairs at home with earnest- ness. But it soon became eAident that the restraints throAvn about him were unpleasant; he chafed for freedom, and in spite of our efforts succeeded in escaping, and fled to a neigh- boring State. Here he re-commenced stimulation. He Avas again returned to the asylum after an absence of three weeks, andAvas under the strictest surveillance during the remaining time of his commitment. "A similar type of mania is found in our insane asylums, and is classified under the head of religious excitement as its cause. It is so well understood, that it is unnecessary to cite a case to sIioav its striking resemblance to dipsomania. From the valuable statistical tables prepared by the cele- brated Thomas S. Kirkbride, M. D., we find four per cent, of this type of religious monomania existing in insane asylums. So far as Ave have investigated the types and phases of dipso- mania, Ave cannot classify more than t\vo and a half per cent under this head. "The folloAving case (like numerous others that could be giA'en) is taken from the authority of Dr. Forbes AYinsloAV, and shows the universal propensity of dipsomaniacs to squander property, either their own or that of their friends: " 'A young gentlemen, aged tAventy-nine, died of rum con- sumjition. X post mortem examination was made. The in- vesting membranes of the brain presented evidences of or- ganic change. The dura-mater Avas found to be three times its healthy consistence, and was like a piece of leather. There Avere also tubercular depositions on the pia-mater. These alterations, in all probability, existed many years, and Avith- out apparently disordering his mind. This patient had for some time been a cause of much unhappiness to his family, without their suspecting him to be insane. He drank to a frightful excess, indulged in the society of the most depraved,' 198 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. and squandered in a feAv years a splendid patrimony. He married a respectable girl, much beloAV him in rank and sta- tion, whom he in a. short time brutally treated. He then deserted her, and his infant child, leaving them both to the charity of friends and distant relatives. ToAvards his oavii im- mediate family he manifested no kind of interest or affection. His father, who was a man advanced in years, was exposed to a murderous assault, on one occasion, because he refused to attach his signature to one of his son's reckless accept- ances. This wretched dipsomaniac was eventually accused of various acts of gross bestiality, as well as of theft. He became an adept in accomplished vice and cold-blooded depravity.' "Can any doubt be entertained as to the pathological relation between the state of this man's brain, and the extra- ordinary mental condition referred to? "A case that came under our observation bears a strong resemblance to the one quoted from Dr. W.: A young man, whose family occupied a high social position, and who inher- ited a large estate, commenced to stimulate at the age of eighteen. This appetite for strong drink he inherited from his grandparent, who died a dipsomaniac. In the ninth year of his excess he arose from the bed at midnight, summoned every member of the family and the servants, caused them all to go through a military drill in their night-clothes, which would have been continued by his threats until his strength had been exhausted, if the police had not been called in to control him. At another time he laid hold of his wife, tied her up in sheets, and inflicted injuries upon her per- son that will continue for life. In the course of ten years he squandered his whole estate, committed outrages upon his family, which, had they been committed under acute mania, would have consigned him to an insane asylum without fur- ther evidence. His estate would have been preserved from destruction, his wife and children from pauperism, and him- self from a drunkard's grave. "The folloAving case of a lady of wealth and position in New York, shows that alcoholic poison destroys all honesty and all veracity: "'Mrs.---, up to the time she began to stimulate to excess, was a truthful and religious woman. She was a HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 199 prominent member in the church, a leader in numerous benevolent projects, and highly respected by all her acquain- tances and friends. Gradually it became evident to her fam- ily that a mysterious change Avas taking place in her de- meanor, which to them Avas unaccountable. From a frank and truthful she became a deceptive and lying person. This Avas noticed not only by her husband and children, but even by the servants of the house. It was a constant source of grief to the father, when he considered the evil effects of her example upon his children. "'Farly one morning a carriage stopped at her resi- dence, and a prominent merchant, Avell known by the family, Avas announced. He wished to see Mr.---in private. After a consultation Avith him, his errand Avas made known to the family. It appeared that Mrs. --- had been purchasing some trivial things at the store of this merchant on the pre- vious day, and, after her departure from the store, the clerk in attendance had missed several articles of lace of great value. This clerk was confident that this lady must have taken them, as no other person had been sIioavii this quality of goods on that day. Mr.---was perfectly shocked at the idea, and could not believe it possible. Nevertheless, he sum- moned his wife, Avho at first stoutly denied the charge, and seemed indignant at being suspected of theft. On being urged by the merchant, and told that, unless she confessed the deed, an exposition would be made, she proceeded to the attic and returned with the goods. After this transaction she gave herself up to the influence of strong drink, and, not- withstanding the entreaties of her husband, the tears of her children, the prayers of her friends, she could not be con- trolled. Tavo years afterwards she died in a fit of delirium tremens.' "The celebrated Dr. Forbes Winslow, of London, in his excellent work on diseases of the brain and mind, describes the perversion of the moral sense in insanity. We give his remarks in relation to moral perversion caused by insanity, and append his cases in comparison: "'Insanity and other forms of cerebral disease, often manifest themselves in the early stage by aberrations and perversions of the moral sense. For some time prior to the development of derangement of mind or disease of the brain, patients have been known (contrary to their usual habits) to indulge in gross sensual excesses, to exhibit states of moral decadence, weakened and paralyzed volition; to be guilty of acts of private and public indecency and dishonesty. These symptoms may exist for years before insanity declares itself. 200 HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. " 'A lady of good family, and of affluent circumstances, accompanied by her maid, entered the shop of a fashionable jeweler at the Avest end of London. The lady, as Avell as other members of the family, Avere in the habit, for years, of dealing with the tradesman referred to. After examining many articles of jewelry, she left the shop without purchas- ing anything. Soon after her arrival home the master of the shop called at the house, and requested an interview with the husband of the lady. This was at once complied with. He then informed him that his wife had been to his shop, and had, as he suspected, abstracted a valuable diamond brace- let. The matter was immediately investigated, and the sus- picion of the tradesman proved to be correct. The bracelet Avas found and returned to its owner; he, in the true spirit of a liberal and humane man, affirming to the distressed hus- band that it Avas his firm belief that the circumstance had arisen either in a mistake, or Avas the result of a temporary fit of alienation of mind. No one acquainted Avith the char- acter of the lady could, for one moment, believe that she had (Avhilst in full and unclouded possession of her senses) com- mitted a deliberate act of felony. Such an idea was too pre- posterous to be for a moment entertained. This unhappy episode suggested an investigation, and, to the great aston- ishment of her husband and all the members of his family, a number of diamond rings, valuable bracelets, gold chains, &c, were found in her possession, of which no account could be given. About nine months after this affair, this lady's conduct became so remarkably and observably singular, that, for the first time, her husband began to suspect the existence of aberration of mind. Her mental disorder ex- hibited itself in a disposition to pilfer everything she could lay her hands upon. The articles so stolen were most cleverly concealed in various portions of her dress, in beds, and in parts of the house not generally frequented by the family. "'Such was the state of the patient's mind when I was first consulted. I had no doubt as to the character of the case. It was my opinion that other and more decided symp- toms of insanity would in a short time be observed. In three months from my first seeing this patient, her mind exhibited decided indications of aberration, rendering it necessary for her to be removed from home. Her mental health was re-es- tablished in about eighteen months.' " We quote another case from the same authority: "'A merchant, aged forty-six years, whose conduct had ahvays been honorable, was brought to my establishment in 1846, on account of acts of licentiousness, of which he had been guilty over a period of half a year, and Avhich were so HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 201 entirely opposed to his usual habits, that his family, painfully affected by this conduct, thought that it must be attributed to some mental derangement. " ' For several months, moreover-, he had given himself up to speculations, of Avhich many had failed. Even at the time Avhen attention had been aroused by his disordered actions, nothing in his discourse and manner of living had excited any suspicion of mental disturbance. He visited the Bourse daily, had numerous communications with persons of his calling, but none of them had perceived his mental state, or at least no one had pointed it out. "' When he was brought to me he neither showed any emotion nor manifested any astonishment at being trans- ferred to an unknoAvn house. I spoke to him first upon the acts Avhich led to his being controlled. He ansAvered, speak- ing carelessly, as if the matter did not concern him, 'that alarm had been too readily taken, and that every thing Avould be explained.' I interrogated him aftenvards about his business, and the position of his affairs. To these ques- tions, which did not seem to surprise him, he, to all appear- ance, responded rationally but someAvhat evasively, and gave no explanation. I referred more particularly to certain of the points on which I sought information, and he said: 'My business affairs, like other commercial matters, are both good and bad. I have not to complain of them. My family behaves Avell to me; my position is satisfactory, and my health is very good.' 1 attempted to question him more closely, but he then responded : ' I do not know; I can not call to mind.' Not being able to elicit any thing more from him, I terminated the conversation, and he wished me to allow him to visit the Bourse. This request not being acceded to, he left me as if the matter were of trifling importance, and went into the garden. " ' During this conversation it Avas evident to me that the attention Avas enfeebled, the memory confused, and conscious- ness modified, but 1 did not observe either embarrassment of speech, disorder in the movements, or manifest incoherence. I concluded, hoAvever, that the maiiAvas under the influenceof general paralysis, and I stated to his relatives that grave consequences Avere to be apprehended, not only to his life but also to his fortune. '"The examination of his books was a thunder-stroke. They Avere badly kept, showed great omissions, and the only certain information to be obtained from them was that ruin Avas imminent. The commercial position of the unfortunate man presently, hoAveA'er, assumed a. more serious cast. The judges of the tribunal of commerce pronounced on his affairs a verdict of fraudulent bankruptcy, and directed his arrest> 202 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. and an officer of the court presented himself at my establish- ment Avith the necessary mandate. I conducted him to the patient, in whom in the space of three Aveeks the following changes had taken place: His memory was entirely lost, and he could not respond to any questions put to him. His look was stupid, and his figure immobile. Already embarrassment of the speech night be noted, and the feebleness of the legs showed positively that he suffered from general paralysis, and that the habitual excitation of his life had been masked by mechanical movement. I declared to the officer that in the state in which the patient then was, I could not permit him to execute the mandate; and I added that from the rapidity with which the affection had proceeded, it was almost certain that a serious termination would very shortly occur. I pre- pared a certificate to this effect, and fonvarded it to the Tri- bunal of Commerce, and the arrest was adjourned until the re-establishment of the patient's, health. Three months afterwards this patient died, in the last degree of brutishness and marasmus.' "The following case came under our own observation, and was an applicant (through his friends) for admission to the asylum, before the hospital was opened for the reception of patients: " 'Mr.---was a clergyman of great ability and of high moral rectitude, up to time he was attacked with sciatica. From this disease he was a great sufferer, and his physician prescribed brandy. This stimulant was continued until it had been increased from two to twenty glasses per day. Such an excess of alcoholic poison soon undermined his constitu- tion, clouded his brain, impaired his memory and sapped his moral rectitude. He became a liar and a thief, and would resort to the most dishonest practices to procure his daily beverages, until his friends were obliged to remove him from home and place him under the strictest surveillance. In this seclusion, after a medical treatment of fourteen months, he recovered his physical health, mental vigor and moral stam- ina, and is noAv an upright and conscientious man and a useful citizen.' "From this type of moral insanity, we proceed to the consideration of the higher crimes of lunacy, as adjudicated by the courts. We note the mental manifestations which appear in the madman who imbrues his hands in the blood of his brother (Avithout a motive), and compare the same with the acts of the dipsomaniac. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 203 "The following case, given by Dr. Drake, of Cincinnati, Ohio, has attracted the attention of the medical public in its bearings on the legal responsibility of the dipsomaniac: " 'John Birdsall, of Harrison, in that State, wasindicted, in 1829, for the murder of his wife with an axe, by dividing the spinal column in the neck. He Avas about fifty years old, and had been married to this, his second wife, about nineteen or tAventy years, and had children by her. For some years previous, he had been subject to occasional fits of intoxica- tion. These, of late, were followed by delirium tremens, which generally lasted several days, and went off spontaneously. In these paroxysms, all its physical and moral symptoms Avere present. He entertained great fears for his safety, and sometimes ran about the village as if attempting to escape from pursuit. At another time he concealed himself betAveen a feather and straAv bed in his oavii house. He Avould point his gun from his Avindow, as if for defense against imaginary persons. He was also very watchful. The prevailing mani- acal delusion vva.s, that his wife avus in combination with his neighbors—one, his son by his first wife—against his life. He had charged her, during his paroxysms, with criminal inti- macy Avith these, and had threatened to kill her. "'On Sunday heAvas intoxicated; Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday presented nothing special. On Wednesday'even- ing he complained of being umvell, but seemed to be rational. He slept none that night, and next day the family thought him crazy, but were not alarmed. In the course of it he took an axe and went to a neighbor, whom he desired to return Avith him, as he stated they Avanted to kill him. He spent the day at home, apparently in terror and agitation ; manifested jealousy of his wife; barred the doors; and fancied that the persons of whom he Avas jealous were manufacturing ropes upstairs to hang him. '"In the course of the afternoon he suddenly committed the murder. His wife was sitting by the fire, and he had been Availing the room. After the fatal blow on the neck, he fol- io Aved it by two or three on the face. His eldest daughter seized the axe, which he wielded, when he took a scythe and attempted to strike her. She defended herself until the door Avas opened. When arrested, he acknoAvledged the homicide, and kneAV, he said, that heAvould be hung, but ought to have done it sooner. He talked at this time so rationally, that many of the witnesses could not believe him deranged. He evinced no dread of punishment, but was still in great appre- hension of those who he had believed intended to kill him. After being committed he became regular, and expressed sorroAV for Avhat he had done. 201 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. "'On the trial, three medical Avitnesses agreed that he labored under mania a potu when he committed the homicide. For the defense, it was urged that when drunkenness gives rise to insanity it should cause immunity, and hence form a legal excuse. On the other hand, the counsel for the people remarked that Birdsall kneAv that this delirium followed his intoxication, and hence it was voluntary. The law, therefore, held him accountable for actions during such a state. The verdict was murder in the first degree, and he was sentenced to death.' "This case excited the interest of Dr. Drake; and, in a very able paper, he clearly showed that insanity was present in this individual. Some of his observations I shall here con- dense. He remarks that the paroxysms of delirium tremens are never permanent, but ahvays transient, or for two or three days only, and seldom extend beyond a fortnight. That, in this state, there is actual delusion, as much so as in common insanity. That of Birdsall was jealousy and appre- hension of his wife. The court and jury seemed to hold that he was not deranged in the degree that destroyed his percep- tion of right or wrong, in reference to the murder; and that, even if he had been, still he could not have been acquitted, because his alienation originated in intemperance. Dr. Drake, on the other hand, justly supposes that he was not capable of judging betAveen right and wrong, oral least of controlling his actions on the subject of his hallucination. In all his maniacal attacks he entertained jealousy of his wife, and the idea that she Avas in a conspiracy against him. Here were assumed and unreal premises; deductions true to the princi- ples of logic, but false in point of fact; and lastly, acts con- sistent with his conclusions—constituting in fact the very essence of insanity. Had he killed, in a real dispute, any one not in the conspiracy, it would have been foreign to his hallucination, and should not have been excused. "As to the remaining part of the opinion of the court, viz: that the prisoner Avas aAvare that mania-a-potu folloAved his intoxication, and, therefore, he could not be excused from his voluntary state of insanity ; Dr. Drake remarks that the disease sometimes arises from opium, and even from liquors not taken to intoxication. In the eye of the law, even drink- ing to excess isnot criminal; nordid the prisoner take liquor with malice prepense. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 205 " Doctor Esquirol mentions the folloAving case of homici- dal madness: "'D. Baptiste had been married some years, and lived happily with his wife, against whom he had no just ground of complaint. In 1S26, upon the occasion of a holiday, D. Avas the subject of some pleasantly to his companions. Irri- tated by their remarks, he dre\v his sword against a, man, and a violent quarrel ensued. From that time D. appeared care- Avorn. About the end of the month of December of the same year he aAvoke suddenly one night, complaining of being very umvell. A medical man was called, avIio found the patient suffering from some gastric irritation, accompanied Avith delirium. He entertained suspicion against his medical attendant as being in league Avith his wife and father to des- troy him. From the period of this attack his character and manner were completely changed; he become gloomy, dis- trustful, irritable and passionate. He abandoned his relig- ious duties, and gave up the labors of his fields. He began to suspect the fidelity of his wife; he lived alone; shunned the society of his former acquaintances, and seldom left his home, and expressed fears of some attempt being made upon his life. Haunted by this imaginary fear, he spoke upon all occasions of his secret enemies, and of the plots Avhich were hatching against him. He was persuaded that a person by the name of Robert, whom he constantly referred to in conversation, while in a rage, in his letters and deposition, was the originator of the plots which were directed against him. His father, mother and Avife were all occasionally inclu- ded among his enemies. Upon every other subject this man seemed to be in the enjoyment of a sound mind. During one of the paroxysms of his malady, his fears and disquietudes became so much aggravated that he made an attempt to destroy himself by swallowing sulphuric acid. This attempt at suicide took place in the spring of 1827. Such Avas the condition of this man from the end of the year 1826. He had exhibited intervals of mental agitation and calm, of insanity and sound mind. He had distinct delusions, though they Avere not permanent, and their character seemed to change. He had been insane, and he had made an attempt at suicide. '"On the evening of the third of May, 1828. he passed the evening quietly with a third person and his Avife till nine o'clock, Avithout presenting any mark of unusual agitation, or of the perturbation of mind of one about to commit the fearful crime of murder. The next morning his Avife was found dead in bed. A cloth was spread over the body, and a crucifix placed upon it. The husband had disappeared, a 206 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. horse belonging to his father had disappeared also, and the clothes which he had worn on the preceding day were found in a cellar covered over with blood. In the course of nine days this man was arrested, and from himself and other witnesses the folloAving facts were elicited : After having mur- dered his wife with a hammer, she being asleep at the time he attacked her, he sought for a table-cloth, spread it over the body, placed a crucifix upon it, washed his hands, changed his clothes, which were marked with blood, threAV them into the cellar, provided himself with money, took a horse belong- ing to his father, locked the door, hid the key and fled across the country, avoiding the public roads. He reached an inn where he ate heartily, and where he left behind him articles Avhich were certain to afford traces of his steps. He managed to conceal himself nine days; he was arrested on the tAvelfth of May. Upon his person letters were found Avhich he had Avritten in the interval. Two of these letters were addressed to the King; in them his enemies Avere denounced, at the same time he begged his majesty would do them no harm. Others were addressed to two relations, to whom he con- fessed the murder of his wife, and requested them to procure passports under an assumed name, to enable him to reach some other country. In his examination he detailed all the particulars of the murder, the precautions he had adopted to escape, and he gave various statements as to the motives which had led him to murder his wife. Sometimes he said he was in a passion; sometimes that his Avife had refused him money, and sometimes that he was irritated on account of the bad advice she had received, though in other respects she had behaved perfectly correctly, but he laid the chief blame upon his enemies, particularly Bobert, as having pushed him on to the commission of murder, for the purpose of ruining him. " 'In consequence of the doubts which were entertained as to the state of this man's mind, he was sent to Paris and placed in the Bicetre, to permit an opportunity of observing him. During the first weeks of his residence he took no ex- ercise, spoke little, and seemed to be in a state approaching to stupor, wept often and long, particularly when questioned as to the particulars of the murder and the motives which had induced him to destroy his oavii wife; of which, indeed, he spoke as of a thing with which he had no concern, and as if another person had been guilty of it. In no other respect did this man appear to be of unsound mind. After several months residence in the hospital, D. became more communi- cative; he conversed more freely with the patients, he wept more rarely when questioned as to his own situation, and it HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 207 seemed pretty evident that he Avas aAvare of the position in whichhe stood. He began to occupy himself Avith labor. ()n the 4th of July, 1829, an obvious change Avas remarked in this man; he seemed restless and agitated. It appeared that he had illusions Avith regard to the sense of hearing, for he complained that, in passing him, the inmates of the hospital said things which Avere offensive to him. He exhibited marks of displeasure against patients with Avhom he had casual intercourse, but no quarrels. On the tenth he requested to be confined, and said that he did not wish to injure any one. ()n the eighteenth he Avent to bed Avithout any particular marks of greater agitation than on the previous day; during the night he rose from bed, went out of the apartment where he slept Avith other patients, got hold of a stick with Avhich he attacked a patient who lay in the bed next to his oavu ; the companion of the one whom he had attacked was awakened by the noise, and called for assistance. D. struck him a Woav with the stick to make him get under the bedclothes, and reneAved his attack upon the patient whom he had first assaulted, and succeeded in murdering him. The servants of the hospital hastened to the place, laid hold of D., who allowed himself to be placed under restraint Avithout resist- ance, wept, repented, accused others as if they and not he had been guilty of the murder; as if they had compelled him to do the'deed.- He said he heard voices which told him to avenge himself, for they wished to kill him. HeacknoAvledged that his restraint was necessary, for his intention was to have done as much to tAvo or three others. After this new murder D. appeared calm, slept quietly, ate well, and appeared resigned to the restraint under which he had been placed. He seemed, however, to have some fear of the legal consequences of this neAV murder. "'This man Avas tried for murder, condemned and exe- cuted, and yet there can beno doubt of his insanity. Hewas insane at the time he murdered his wife, and equally so on the occasion of this second murder, though a long period had intervened, during Avhich he did not seem to be suffering, or but slightly from intellectual aberration; and at all events a very evident amendment had taken place; yet, upon some aggravation of the condition to which he was liable, of the approach of which he himself seemed conscious, he committed a causeless murder upon a helpless insane patient, confined in the same hospital with himself. When he murdered his wife, he took precautions to avoid detection; these were ineffect- ual, no doubt, and they Avere far from being Avell contrived. It is^emarkable that a degree of calm succeeded to the act of murder in both instances, which it is evident did not exist previous to the deed or in the moment of its commission.' 208 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. " It is not our purpose to discuss the exact time when the brain becomes diseased by alcohol, and its Aictim loses self- control, or AAiiat quantity of that stimulant a person can use before becoming a dipsomaniac. This point of time can be no more satisfactorily arrived at than the true time required for the production of yelloAV fever by the application of its exciting cause. Some constitutions Avould be affected in five minutes; in others it would require weeks, or perhaps months of exposure to miasmata before the individual Avould discover the premonitory symptoms of the disease. So it is with different individuals Avho are in constant use of alcoholic stimulants. One person may drink to excess for twenty-five years Avithout producing a morbid condition of brain, while another, by drinking to excess for the same number of days would produce a disease of the Avhole system. It is impossi- ble for the physician to state when the constitution is first affected by disease. The dividing line between health and disease has never been determined, nor can it ever be defined. The physiologist has never been able to draw the dividing line betAveen sanity and insanity, or to determine how much of the exciting cause it requires to produce a morbid condi- tion of the brain. These nice distinctions in regard to the pathology of disease do not enter into the discussion in reference to the importance of asylums for the control and medical treatment of dipsomaniacs. Neither is it our prov- ince to point out the dividing line where the moral responsi- bility ceases, and the irresponsibility begins in the use of alcoholic stimulants. The time and the only time when this institution can reach the dipsomaniac is when he has lost self-control, and the law regards him as a dangerous citizen, or when he can be induced to enter the asylum voluntarily. " We contend that when the brain is diseased from defec- tive nutrition, by any animal or vegetable poison, by any great shock on the nervous system impairing the nervous fluids of the body, there will be a corresponding disease of mind, which disease will develop all the peculiar types, stages and phases of insanity, from the most inoffensive to the most furious and dangerous. "It matters not Aoirthis disease may have been induced, whether by stimulants prescribed in sickness, or by the influ- HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 209 ence of social friends; whether under extenuating circum- stances, or in full view of the terrible penalty which this mal- ady inflicts on its victim. The State is equally bound to pro- tect society against the insane acts of the dipsomaniac. He should be committed to an asylum for restraint and treat- ment adapted to his physical and mental condition. All the laAVS and penalties which a State can enact against crime committed by the dipsomaniac will never prevent him, while ut large, from committing murder, arson or theft, or from taking his OAvn life. Why, then, should our State alloAV its citizens to go at large, when they have lost self-control, and when daily experience shows that it is not compatible with private and public safety for them to remain at liberty? Does the State bring to life the murdered family by simply going through the accustomed forms of judicial procedure, in order to punish the man for what he cannot Irresponsi- ble, or place him as a criminal at the bar, when his testimony would not be received in the Avitness-box, or find out, too late, that he really is a maniac, and send him at last to an asylum as a criminal lunatic? The only true and enlight- ened policy for the State is to provide asylums for this class of insane. "In presenting the cases of insanity quoted from some of the most celebrated physicians of the world, and comparing the stages, types and phases of acute and chronic mania with those of dipsomania, Ave find a striking resemblance, and are forced to believe that the dipsomaniac is equally irresponsible with the lunatic, and should be controlled and treated in an asylum organized for that purpose. "Since the asylum was opened, eighty-five male patients have been received. We present the following table showing the ages of the whole number of patients treated in the Asy- lum up to the day it was closed, October 1st. 1866: From 18 to 25 years of age.................................................................. 9 From 25 to 35 " ..................................................................1'^ From 35 to 45 " ..................................................................20 From 45 to 55 " .................................................................. G From 55 to 65 " .................................................................. 1 From 65 to 75 " ...............................................................••• 1 Total............................................................................................85 14 210 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. TABLE SHOWING THE NATIVITY OF THE PATIENTS. Natives of the United States.................................................................81 Natives of British America.................................................................... 4 Total............................................................................................85 TABLE SHOWING THE TYPE OF DIPSOMANIA IN EIGHTY-FIVE PATIENTS. Constitutional type..............................................................................58 Hereditary type....................................................................................27 TABLE SHOAVING THE NUMBER OF SINGLE, MARRIED AND AVIDOWERS IN EIGHTY-FIVE PATIENTS. Single ...................................................................................................36 Married ................................................................................................34 Widowers ............................................................................................. 8 Divorced................................................................................................ 7 TABLE. Fifty-seven have been continued drinkers; ten haA*e been periodic drinkers. Twelve have had convulsions; forty-five have had delirium tremens; ten have had neither. Sixty-seven haA'e used tobacco: either chewers or smokers. Two have used opium alone; five have used opium and liquors; sixty have used liquors without opium. TABLE SHOWING THE OCCUPATION OF EIGHTY-FIVE MALE PATIENTS. Clergymen............................................................................................. 2 Lawyers................................................................................................ 4 Physicians and Army Surgeons............................................................ 2 Authors ................................................................................................ 2 Officers of United States Army ............................................................ 5 Quartermasters of United States Army................................................ 2 Naval Officers....................................................................................... 2 Civil Engineers...................................................................................... 3 Merchants.............................................................................................18 Manufacturers........-............................................................................... 2 Forwarder............................................................................................ 1 Shipping Agent.................................................................................... 1 Railroad Conductor.............................................................................. 1 Plumber................................................................................................ 1 Seamen.................................................................................................. 2 Gentlemen ............................................................................................11 Gentleman Farmer................................................................................ 1 Farmers................................................................................................ 2 Cashier.................................................................................................. 1 Bank Secretaries................................................................................... 2 Brokers ................................................................................................ 2 Insurance Agent................................................................................... 1 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 211 Banker's Clerk...................................................................................... 1 Clerks ................................................................................................... 9 Ship Captain......................................................................................... 1 Jeweler.................................................................................................. 1 Druggists............................................................................................. 2 Leather Dealer...................................................................................... 1 Blacksmith............................................................................................ 1 Undertaker............................................................................................ 1 "The following cases, Avhich have come under treatment at the asylum, sIioav the great results accomplished by this hos- pital, and its hygienic status. No death has occurred among the patients, and there has never been a case of acute or chronic disease contracted in the institution. Every patient (except seven who Avould not conform to treatment) has rapidly improved in physical and mental condition, and many, as they regain their mental stamina, have also mani- fested a higher tone of moral sentiment. "The first case Ave mention was a gentleman in middle life, who was a graduate of one of our Ncav England colleges. He had been a hard drinker for more than ten years. In examining his case, Ave found that the force of the disease had been directed to the brain and nervous system. His physical poAver Avas weak, his mind clouded, and it was with great difficulty that he could remember events of the preceding- day. For the first six months of treatment his nervous con- dition improA'ed but little. He was constantly finding fault. Every trifle seemed to annoy him. He would often state to me, AAiien in this morbid condition, that he wished his brother had carried him to the grave instead of bringing him to the asylum. In the seventh month there was a marked improvement in his condition. The eighth month showed a still greater change in his physical, mental and moral status. He steadily advanced in strength, until the end of the twelfth month he had reached the weight of two hundred and ten pounds, with a nervous system firm and strong, and a mind of intellectual vigor. He left the asylum in February, 1805, and, returning to Ncav York, entered into a Avholesale establishment as a purchasing clerk. He had remained in that position scarcely eleven months when he was received into the firm as a partner. He stated to me 212 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. that he had not the slightest morbid appetite for liquor. This gentleman is noAv universally respected by his acquaint- ances for his gentlemanly deportment, nobleness of heart and christian character. "Patient No. 2.— We Avill give another case of great interest, Avhich was that of a gentleman who was sent to the asylum by an order of the court. This patient, thirty-nine years of age, was a thoroughly educated merchant, and had business qualities of the highest order. When he arrived at the asylum his mind was so weak that he could not realize that he had entered a hospital. His nervous system was much shattered, and his limbs partially paralyzed, which rendered it almost impossible for him to walk. With this physical and mental condition there Avas developed a great amount of nervous irritability. He wondered Avhy his friends should have placed him in the asylum, as he said that he did not stimulate. He also declared that he would have his revenge. After he had been in the asylum a few months he began to improve in body and mind, and at the expiration of his commitment had improved so rapidly that he con- cluded to stay three months longer. At the end of this time, March, 1865, he returned to New York and re-entered the business circle Avhich, previous to his entering the asylum, he had abandoned, and he is now in the enjoyment of a sound body and mind, without any morbid appetite for stimulants. "Patient No. 3.—Another case of a chronic character is that of a young man who had been struggling for more than fifteen years against a morbid appetite for alcoholic stimu- lants. This appetite had been produced by liquors pre- scribed in sickness by the family physician. When this patient was a boy six years old, there was developed in his constitution a scrofula diathesis, which brought him near to death's door. This development of constitution lasted more than five years, and it was found that he needed all the appliances of the most stimulating food to overcome it. While at school and in college, he (being very social in his nature) would exchange the social glass with his compan- ions. Soon after he had graduated from the law school and commenced his professional life, he was more exposed to social drinking, and soon lost self-control and became the HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 213 victim of alcoholic stimulants. After many fruitless trials to regain self-control, he decided to enter an insane asylum for restraint. He bound himself to remain in the insane asy- lum for one year. At the expiration of the year he left but little benefited. After he had been out a few months he found it necessary to return to make one more trial. This he did, and struggled with all the remaining poAver of his will. During his tAvo years spent in the insane asylum, he told me that he was constantly under a nervous irritability for stimulants, which Avas kept up by being surrounded with lunatics. These surroundings (through the medium of the brain) produced such a morbid disturbance of the functional condition of the stomach, liver and bowels, that during his whole tAvo years at the asylum he never had a healthy move- ment of the boAvels. Such was his condition when discharged from that institution, with but little hope of ever becoming a healthy man. When he was received at the Inebriate Asy- lum, he had been constantly under the influence of alcoholic liquors for over six months. The amount of liquors he had consumed was astonishing. The effects which they had pro- duced upon his physical and mental condition were plainly visible. He had lost the poAver of walking Avithout assist- ance, and it was with the greatest difficulty that he could articulate his words. There Avas a turbid condition of the mind, with a diseased condition of liver, stomach and bow- els of the most desperate character. There was also a numb- ness at the extremities of the fingers and toes—a precursor of paralysis. "By a judicious and careful medical treatment this gen- tleman began to improve in body and mind. In the fourth month he began to recover the use of his limbs, and his power of speech was much improved. At the sixth month the numbness of the toes and fingers began to pass off. At the end of the eighth month he could walk over the hills Avithout a cane. At the tenth month he had entirely recovered theuse of his limbs, and Avas free from numbness. At the expiration of the fourteenth month he told me that, for the space of the past two months, he had not suffered a pain or any disagree- able sensation of any kind. At the end of the fifteenth month's treatment Ave found that this patient had gained 214 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. sixty-five pounds of flesh, with a constitution strong and sound, and Avith a mental vigor capable of grappling with the most subtle legal question. The patient took his leaveof us with a grateful heart—sensible that the asylum had been his salvation. "As time and space will render it impossible to give in this report a history of all the patients who have been under treatment, Ave shall be compelled to finish this branch of our subject, by giving tAvo very interesting cases of opium eaters. "Patient No. A.—The first was a young man twenty-eight years of age, of promise and education, belonging to one of the most distinguished families of the State. Originally of a fine figure and commanding attitude, he had been reduced by this narcotic to a lassitude of body and a feebleness of intel- lect almost amounting to imbecility. His physician had given up the case as beyond the reach of hope; still he was brought to the asylum as a last resort. Within the two last years of his excess he had epileptic fits periodically and of such severity it frequently required tAvo persons to control him. When he first began to use opium the quantity did not exceed two grains per day. After the lapse of seven years it had increased to two hundred grains per day. At the lat- ter part of the eighth year it reached the enormous amount of from three hundred to four hundred and eighty grains per day. Occasionally, when he could not procure the solid opium, he would take from four to six ounces of the tincture as a substitute. The quantity consumed by this patient exceeds the amount taken by the celebrated De Quincy, or of a patient we had under treatment in 1861, who took in one year three thousand bottles of McMunn's elixir of opium. This man was received at the asylum more than five months ago. We immediately cut off the opium, and as soon as the effects of the narcotic had passed aAvay he was placed in a warm bath, and kept there for tAventy-nYe minutes, applying at the same time cold water to the head. After coming out of the bath Ave gave him a poAverful cathartic, which produced a movement of the bowels in about half an hour. We then commenced sponging the patient with alcohol, applying, at the same time, cloths saturated with the same to his mouth and nostrils. This treatment was pursued from four to eight HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 215 times in twenty-four hours, and avus continued for four days, Avatching the patient Avith great care. At the end of the fourth day broths Avere administered, which he seemed to relish. On the fifth day there Avere decided symptoms of improvement. On the seventh day he was able to sit up in bed, and from this time he gradually improved, so that in the course of two weeks he Avas able to walk out with an attend- ant. During the past six months he ha-; had but seven fits, Avhich were slight in character. We think, in the course of a year, he will be fully restored. " We will give the history of a case which came under our treatment, showing the importance of having an asylum to control the patient. Major---, a graduate of West Point, returned from the Mexican Avar in 1847, Avith a chronic diar- rhoea. He consulted a physician. Avho prescribed brandy and opium for his malady. The result of this treatment in ten years produced five attacks of delirium tremens and three of convulsions. Six months previous to December', 1857, this patient lost all control of his limbs, so that he could neither Avalk nor feed himself. He had a hard cough, which indicated a granulated condition of his lungs, and convulsions, sIioav- ing an ulcerated condition of the stomach. The prostate gland was partially paralyzed, causing an incontinence of urine; and the passages by the bowels were involuntary. All the symptoms of permanent idiocy were present. He neither recognized his father nor his sisters. This state of the mind indicated an indurated condition of the brain. His physicians had given him up as incurable, and his friends had given their consent (in case of his death) to have him buried with military honors. At this crisis AveAvere called to treat the case, and in six weeks Avere able to l-emove him five hundred miles by railroad. We treated him at a private residence for seven months. In this time he recovered the use of his limbs, and could Avalk and feed himself. In August Ave carried him to an insane asylum and directed his treatment. After being there nine months Ave placed him under the charge of a friend in the country, (still directing his treatment,) ay here he staved six months. After this Ave placed him in another insane asy- lum, where he remained nine months under treatment. He then left theinstitution, and after visiting his friends, he sailed 216 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. for Europe, where he remained two years. He is iioav well, with the prospect of living for twenty years. In the treatment of this case Ave were compelled to travel bvT railroad fift.y-four hundred and twenty miles. In the same time and with the same labor, we could have rescued (with an inebriate asylum) three hundred persons, who have gone down to an inebriate's grave." Patient No. 1 recovered his health entirely and lived, without a single relapse, for twenty years a useful life, respected and beloved by all who knew him, and died in the year 1885. Patient Xo. 2 lived ten years after leaving the Asy- lum. He had no relapses, and died of heart disease, in Broadway, New York, on his way to business. Patient Xo. 3, after leaving the Asylum, moved to Missouri, and began the practice of law, in which he was very successful. He lived four years, vyith'out a relapse, and died of typhus fever. Patient Xo. 4 left the Asylum before his time of treatment had expired. He lived but ten months, and died from the effects of the opium habit. Alajor ---- died at the age of 69, of pneumonia, having lived twenty-three years a sober life without a single relapse. Of the Asylum patients seven were divorced men. Thev left the Asylum in good health, and five were after- wards married a second time. Four are leading sober and happy lives, one of whom resides within ten miles of the waiter, universally respected. Nine patients entered the Asylum under assumed names, that they might remain unknown to patients and officers of the Institution. One of the nine came from the West. He remained under treatment one year, only his father knowing HISTORY N. Y STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 217 where he was. Subsequently, on one of his canvassing tours through one of the Western States, the writer called upon this patient, and found him a judge upon the bench, surrounded by a family of five children, and respected throughout the State. The Judge said to the writer, " Xo one living to-day knows of my having once been a patient in the Inebriate Asylum but you. My late good father shielded me, not letting even my mother and sisters know where I was. The Asylum, as it was then conducted, shielded the patient from becoming a sIioav, and every guard was thrown around him for his protection. It is under these circumstances that I am protected, and my little children are equally protected, against the slanderer's tongue.'1 CHAPLAIN'S REPORT. The undersigned entered upon his duties as chaplain of the New York State Inebriate1 Asylum on the 23d day of Feb- ruary, 1865. Since that time forty patients have been received and tAventy haA^e left. The present number is thirty. They are, for the most part, persons in middle life, who have occupied important positions in society. Almost all the leading occupations are represented. Among them are pro- fessional men, Avell educated, of refined taste, and of decided ability, and thereby fitted to become useful and influential members of society. Others have business abilities of no mean order, which in former years were successfully exercised. A feAv there are av!io, though they have had no professional . or business training, are yet fitted by their sociable and amia- ble qualities to render a home happy and to be an ornament in the circle in Avhich they have hitherto moved. There may be two or three so demoralized as to render them seemingly indifferent as to what shall be their condition in the future; but even these are not beyond the reach of improvement and perh a ps of r< >covery. 218 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. For the most part they are persons on whom the strong- est motives, the most earnest entreaties of kindred and friends have been fruitlessly urged. Yielding to the demands of a despotic appetite, despite the most poAverful persuasions to the contrary, they were rapidly going to destruction. The last hope of rescuing them, on the part of their friends, was by placing them in the asylum. On their arrival here they are found to be in a deterio- rated condition, differing according to the length and degree of their excesses. One, for example, was brought here in a fit of delirium tremens; another, very emaciated, was so weak and diseased as to be obliged to be confined to his bed for several Aveeks; another was almost a total wreck, with a dis- eased stomach and a raging appetite, not only for stimulants but for food, which, the moment it Avas received into the stomach, was ejected from it, this continuing for manyAveeks; another Avas very feeble in body and mind, pale and very thin; another, given up as incurable by his physicians at home, was greatly prostrated by reason of excessive indulgence in opium and strong drink; another was so weak and emaciated as to require assistance in alighting from the carriage that brought him here and in conducting him to his room. Oth- ers, again, OAving to a vigorous constitution not reduced to so Ioav a degree, were suffering much from shattered nerves and from a general morbid condition of the system. It gives me very great pleasure to be able to state, that after a few-weeks or months residence here there is visible a very marked and in some instances a surprising improvement, not in respect to one or more, but to all the patients, with scarcely an exception. The feeble become strong; the ema- ciated muscular; the nervous calm; the sad cheerful; and more or less hopeful in respect to the future. And it is dis- tinctly seen that along with an increased bodily vigor and health, is a corresponding increase of intellectual strength and poAver of will. These effects, it would seem, result from the hygienic. medical and moral treatment Avhich they receive, Avhich in general terms is this: the rooms they occupy are spacious, Avell ventilated, warmed and furnished, and usually pleasant —looking out on a landscape of uncommon beauty; the HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 219 atmosphere is as pure and bracing as it well can be; a medicine intended to be adapted to the condition of each patient is daily ad ministered, and the physical condition of each is daily scrutinized; alcoholic stimulants, together with opium and tobacco, are rigidly excluded ; the meals are promptly served at the appointed time; the time for rising and retiring is regu- larly indicated and required to be observed; four hours per day are allotted for exercise in the open air, on ample grounds belonging to the asylum, and abundant provision is made for in-door recreation; religious exercises are held at fixed times everyday, morning and evening, and the usual preach- ing service on the Sabbath. These services are conducted by me, of course, as the chaplain ; they are promptly and fully attended, that indeed being a requirement of the institution ; but they do so, because, as they allege, they deem them to be eminently becoming and indispensable. By attending these exercises, early and tender recollections are awakened, remind- ing them of a mother's prayer, or of a father's counsel, or of a former loved pastor's voice, or of the church in which they Avorshiped in their early years : and many of them not having for several years regularly attended divine service, but noAv attending it here, have trains of thought awakened and emo- tions excited toAvhich they have been hitherto strangers,and which can not but exert over them a benign and powerful influence. In this connection, I would advert to the importance of completing, as speedily as may be, the chapel connected with the asylum. This is a spacious room eighty-two feet in length, thirty-seven in width and forty feet in height. The present place of worship is the library-room. This, indeed, affords a convenient place for that purpose; but.for obAious reasons, the room designed for the chapel would be far bet- ter. Besides being the most suitable room for divine wor- ship, it Avould afford ample room for the attendance of the employes and their families, and all connected with the asy- lum. As it is iioav they are unable to do so. It is very desir- able then that a sum sufficient to complete the chapel, with an organ, should be obtained as soon as practicable. To supply the intellectual as Avell as religious wants of the patients, a large and well-selected library is of course 220 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. necessary. A beginning has been made. Over eight hundred volumes have been generously contributed from various sources. Among them are valuable Avorks on practical divin- ity, history, biography, poetry, philosophy, txc. These are eagerly sought for and read. The library-room, which is sixty feet long, tAventy-eight feet Avide and sixteen feet high, is capable of containing 20,000 volumes. It is hoped that accessions will be made until an ample library shall be secured. Its value to the patients can scarcely be over-esti- mated. In my intercourse with them, Avhich is agreeable to myself and apparently acceptable to them, I endeavor to awaken in them a sense of self-respect; to stimulate and encourage them in right feeling, thinking and acting; to induce them to make determined efforts, even if they perish in the attempt, to free themselves from a debasing and des- tructive appetite; to seek enjoyment in the cultivation of their higher nature, the intellectual and moral; above all, in conjunction with the hygienic and medical appliances Avhich the asylum affords and their OAvn will put forth in its utmost strength, to rely Avholly on divine grace through a crucified Redeemer for their complete and permanent restoration to their friends, to society and to God. The means above indicated, viz: hygienic, medical and moral, being used the past year, the results, if not so great as Ave could wish, are nevertheless, quite as great as were an- ticipated. With an exception or tAvo, every patient, from the day he entered the asylum, has been on the ascending scale of improvement. There are men here to-day Avho one year ago were regarded with anguish and dismay by their immediate friends, but who are noAv recovered to firm health, Avith vigorous minds and apparently strong will, prepared to re-enter upon the busy scenes of life with well-founded hopes of success. Some, who left the asylum one year ago, after a year's residence, are iioav in active, successful business, of Avhom the best hopes are formed bv those avIio know them well. It accords with my observation that the longer a patient stays here the better it is for him. One year, at least, is requisite for the eradication of a deep-seated and irrepressi- ble appetite, the restoration to complete bodily health, the HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 221 establishment of habits of thought and feeling and action, that shall supei'sede those that have brought the victim to the brink of destruction, and the total disruption of those unholy ties that have hitherto bound him to reckless and corrupting associates. The last six months of a patient's residence her*1 are quite as important as the first six. Of course there are exceptional cases. ' The necessity and great utility of such an institution as this is not doubtful. If but a moiety are restored and saved, it Avill repay, a thousand fold, all the outlay of labor and cost that have been expended on its erection. The patients noAv here speak with gratitude of the fact that there is such a place as this for them. At the least it can be said that the wife Avho has here a husband, the parent who has here a son, the sister who has here a brother, friends avIio haA'e here a friend, each and all can feel that, while those dear to them are here, there is for them a secure retreat; that their physi- cal, mental and moral Avants are especially cared for, and that they are out of the grasp of the destroyer, with a hope that the husband, or the son, or the brother, or the friend will be restored to the sacred enclosure of the family, a bless- ing, an ornament and a support. SAMUEL W. BUSH, Chaplain of the N, Y. State Inebriate Asylum. March 1,1866. JOHN HILL, FIRST ASSISTANT PHYSICIAN OF N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 223 EXTRACTS FROM A PAPER BY HENRY T. TUCKERMAX, ESQ., IN THE "NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW," APRIL, 18G2. This paper was based on the pamphlet report of the "Ceremonies on Laying the Corner-Stone of the Xew York State Inebriate Asylum at Binghamton, September 24th, 1858," and upon Air. Tuckerman's personal knowl- edge of the management of the Asylum, derived from his observation for many years as a trustee. As the memorial of a neAV and auspicious benevolent enterprise, and as an illustration of the method and the means whereby the public welfare is secured and advanced in our country, the publication named above merits special attention. It unfolds a noble conception, and describes the beginning of a great charity. The State of Ncav York, in addition to a most creditable array of humane institutions, similar in design and arrangement to others established all over the Union,—hospitals for the indigent victims of dis- ease, for the blind, the deaf and dumb, the insane, the aged poor, for orphans, for disabled seamen,—boasts also several establishments peculiar both as to their objects and their resources, of which it is sufficient to mention the Woman's Hospital, founded upon the beneficent surgical discoveries of Dr. Sims, and the School for Idiots, so success- fully conducted by Dr. Wilbur. To these is iioav added the State Inebriate Asylum, already far advanced toward com- pletion. The publication named at the head of this article contains a statistical and medical exposition by the origina- tor of the plan ; the charter granted by the Legislature; the eloquent appeals uttered, at the laying of the corner-stone of the edifice, by Messrs Everett, BelloAvs, Street and Dickin- son ; with the discourses, on the same occasion, of the late Benjamin F. Butler and John AY. Francis, whose earnest efforts in this behalf are to be commemorated by monu- ments within the Avails; while the letters of citizens of the highest official and professional character, from the Presi- dent of the republic to the Mayor of the metropolis,—leading- merchants, authors, clergymen, jurists, and savants—attest the kind and degree of public sympathy which is not less 224 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. manifest, in a practical form, in the distinguished and hon- ored names of the Board of Trustees. An institution founded under such auspices has uncommon claims to favor- able regard; and Avhen Ave also consider that the design is novel, that the success thus far has been most encouraging, and that the rumor of its establishment has elicited the eager investigation and the cumulative zeal of philanthropists and physicians in various parts of Great Britain, in Holland and in the East Indies, Ave are assured that an endeavor to por- tray and illustrate the purpose, place and plan of the NeAV York State Inebriate Asylum can not fail to be acceptable. Prompted thereto by a conviction that this institution is destined to be the parent of many others, that it is a positive addition to the means of social reform, and marks a fresh and glorious epoch in the annals of humane achievement, we deem it not unreasonable, even in the absorbing period of a momentous national crisis, thus to remember that "Peace hath her victories no less renoAvned than AYar." The application of science to charity is a memorable fea- ture of the age. From knoAvledge combined with benevolence results the highest and most genuine civilization. Material Avell being, under this benign inspiration, is made to coalesce Avith those moral forces by which society and its individual members attain their best development. At no period have those triumphs of humanity been so numerous and remarka- ble as during the past fifty years ; intercourse has attained a directness and celerity Avhich have fused and fostered both enterprise and intelligence; physical pain has been exorcised; the laws of hygiene established and diffused; vast social reforms initiated; the processes of mechanical art amelior- ated ; those of agriculture and domestic economy rendered at once more efficient and less laborious; the resources of culture and enjoyment augmented; and a permanent basis thus laid for advancement in all that belongs to the comfort and the elevation of man. Insanity is iioav successfully treated as a specific cerebral disease, and Avhen it is incurable its victims are at least preserved from the worst consequences of what Avas once regarded as a hopeless and diabolical visita- tion ; and even when the instrument of the mind itself is natively imperfect, Avhen the connection between motive HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 225 poAver and volition, brain and utterance, thought and feel- ings, apprehension and fact, is inadequate; vigilance, sympa- thy, patient encouragement, and healthful care modify the conditions, develop the latent intelligence, revive the flickering flame, so as, if not to redeem the imbecile, often to brighten the life of idiocy. If, on the one hand, artificial luxury has draAvn us away from nature in habits and sympathies, on the other, science and humanity have brought us, like penitent children, back to her forgiving bosom. When intemperance had become a social evil of such mag- nitude as to vitiate the integrity of national life, it Avas natu- ral that it should be assailed by proscription and prohibition to the full extent of legal possibility, that the clergy should bring against it the solemn protest of religion, that legisla- tors should strain their authority to impede its progress, and that every moral influence, from the sumptuary laws of com- munities to the sacred pledge of individuals, should be en- listed against the fatal scourge. The result has been all that such means alone could reasonably be expected to achieve. A marked reform in the habits of society has been effected ; the temptation to indulge in alcoholic stimulants is greatly diminished; fashion has established a more healthful regime; the national conscience is fairly awakened to the nature and extent of intemperance; its facilities are abridged; biv and letters, personal example and public opinion, eloquence, song, art, the press and the pulpit, havTe waged an effectual and memorable crusade against it, the fruits of which this gener- ation enjoys and posterity vv ill honor. To a certain extent the evil has been thus reduced to its normal condition. Its ravages continue; its hecatombs of victims still perish; but many of the customs and circumstances that fostered the vice in this counhw have ceased toexist,and although portentous and prevalent, it is so far limited and defined as to have reached the state which renders it amenable to scientific treat- ment. It is, therefore, as it seems to us, altogether within the range of providential sequence that it should noAv be approached witli a practical insight and a humane efficiency heretofore unattainable; and Ave regard the successful endow- ment of an institution like the NeAvYork State Inebriate Asy- lum as one of the most benign andAvise enterprises of modern 15 22G HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. philanthropy, destined to inaugurate a new era in the perpet- ual conflict Avhich individuals and society sustain Avith this peculiar form of error and suffering, and to insure by the only available means a gradual and progressive triumph. If Ave do not greatly err, this experiment involves princi- ples of social reform, especially in the distinction which it recognizes betAveen constitutional and accidental tendencies, and in its regarding errors heretofore ascribed to willful per- versity as the result of physical causes, and therefore as sus- ceptible of remedial treatment based on physiological laAvs. The charity, the forbearance, sympathy, and consideration thus created, will add new and hitherto unappreciated moral efficiency to the other Avise blind zeal of the reformer, and Avill not only ameliorate, to an indefinite extent, the condition of the frail and the outcast, but will graciously modify the judg- ment of society. No one Avho has not made intemperance a subject of philosophic obserA'ation and diagnosis can duly estimate the varied forms under Avhich it encroaches upon health and character. AAiien the human organization is vieAved with reference to this subject, and its relation to pecu- liar influences, individual and social, how many explanations of the prevalence of intemperance are revealed! AYhen we reflect that the brain is the organ of the mind, that its instru- ments are bound to it by an intricate system of nerves, and that this delicate mechanism is capable of being stimulated or deadened by what is at the moment a sedatiA'e or a means of exhilaration, hoAv natural that, weak, aspiring, baffled, worn, and racked humanity, when self-forgetful and desper- ate, should resort even to a poisoned chalice or a baneful drug, that exalts the consciousness into complacent dreams, or steeps it in oblivious repose! Some physical excitement, some vivid sensation, our nature instinctively craves; and when endowed with the capacity to seek those in intellectual spheres, is it to be wondered at that resort is had to the most available means? The annals of genius, too, abound with evidence that high intellectual gifts are the least trustworthy safeguards against such a pernicious resource, and the very exhaustion of the alert and sensitive mind is a plausible excuse for the occasional indulgence which too often lapses into a degrading habit. AA'hile such refined men as Cowper HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 227 and Schiller found in tea and champagne the favorite means of nervous stimulation, morbid natures like those of Johnson and Byron, rich organizations constantly drained by mental excitement, as in the case of Fox and Burns, Avere liable to similar craving, and were more or lessAvarped and wasted by its indulgence—Avho can read Elia's quaint, yet profoundly tragic, and De Quincey's metaphysical and imaginative ''Confessions," and not feel how near to the most gifted of our race is this terrible scourge ? Yet, in the last analysis, disease is frequently at the root of the evil. Byron was liable to epilepsy; Johnson was a hypochondriac; Cowper trembled on the verge of insanity; Pope's misshapen body cut him off from the excitement of athletic exercise, and drove him to the gratification of his palate; Coleridge was a martyr to pain, Avhich opium alone relieved; Burns suffered from disease of the stomach and fits of melancholy, and what convivial asso- ciates first suggested as a respite from pain, the life of an exciseman confirmed into a fatal habit. In these and other memorable instances there is a vast difference in the degree of self-control, and in the kind and measure of material allevi- ation sought, but they indicate the same abnormal tendency Avhich circumstances and a more or less energetic will can encourage or restrain. Apart from the temptations peculiar to nervous or mor- bid constitutions, there is the occasional intemperance of one class, and the sottish self-abandonment of another; there is the calm and cautious habit of the moderate drinker, and the wild excess into which the slightest indulgence invariably plunges the absolute victim of the habit. Society to one, solitude to another, opportunity there, unhappiness here, proffers the occasion or the motive, and these suggest an equally diverse mode of dealing with- the tendency. Air, water, odors, food, art, literature, companionship—almost every element of life and experience—may stimulate the nerv- ous system, and aAvake the thrill and the throe that respond to every appeal to sense and soul. According to tempera- ment, sensibility and habit, the "electric chain with which we're darkly bound" is moved by coarser or more refined excitements. 228 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Hoav intimately associated with human history and char- acter is this pervading and insidious habit, Ave may read in every record of nations and of genius. AYhat Belshazzar's Feast typifies in the remote past, Shakespeare defined for all time; Noah and Lot succumbed to the very enemy that sub- jugated Falstaff and Roderigo; and the excesses of Scotch banquets half a century ago tell the same tale of human Aveakness as the Irish wake, the German beer-garden, and the bad whiskey that fevers the reckless politicians of the South to-day. But intemperance has, in a great measure, passed from asocial abuse to a private infatuation; and it is chiefly with reference to this latter aspect that medical phi- lanthropy, at length organized into an institution, proposes wisely and kindly to deal. AYe know of no problem more difficult of practical solu- tion, than to reconcile justice to others Avith humanity to the individual, in the course pursued by kindred, friends and soci- ety toAvard inebriates. Those Avho belong to the poor and ignorant classes have, indeed, long been suffered to endure the judicial consequences of their habits, to people the station- house and the jail, or to suffer the extreme penalty of the law for murders committed in the frenzy of alcoholic delirium. Among the educated and more prosperous the life-long grief and shame entailed hj the excesses of a single member might challenge angelic pity, borne, as it often is, with a martyr- like silence, and the forbearance of maternal devotion or con- jugal self-sacrifice. The difficulty Avhich baffles the affection- ate and the conscientious, Avhile thus affected, is to regard, on the one hand, the claims of personal safety and domestic well being, and on the other, those of a husband, brother, or son, Avho, proscribed at home, becomes a reckless outcast, and cherished there as a dangerous inmate, a perpetual care, and a fatal example. Hence the Aveary and tearful vigils, the incessant anxiety, the lonely struggles with pride, love, hope, terror, and despair, which, in the secret annals of domestic misery, attest the ravages of intemperance. Every "justice," says an acute observer, "makes its victims; and we can con- ceive no retribution that does not spread beyond its mark in HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 220 pulsations of unmerited pain." If the eclipse of reason were permanent, an insane asylum would afford an appropriate retreat for these destroyers of tranquil homes, when love for them wrestles Avith the duty to others. If the violence born of strong drink were conscious and habitual, personal restraint and confinement, under sanction of laAV, might be adopted Avithout compunction. It is the casual nature of these effects; the repentance that folloAVs; the noble and endeared traits of character that re-appear Avhen the victim is himself; the never-dying hope of reformation; the fear of utterly quenching self-respect by severity; the pride of family; the love once unprofaned; the thought of a final separation on earth, when death will hallow the memory of the erring to the hearts of kindred,—it is these, and innumerable other conflicting sympathies and duties, that make it so bitter an alternative and so doubtful an expedient to banish the inebri- ate, to hand him over to the civil authority, or to abandon him to his fatal appetite, and yet not to do thus is to inflict upon those near and dear to him a life of Avretched apprehen- sions and agonized vigilance, destructive of peaee of mind, and often of the capacity for usefulness and enjoyment. If the Inebriate Asylum achieved no other social good than to afford a safe retreat for the victims of intemperance, Avhere they are out of the Avay of temptation, and provided with the essential comforts of life, it vv ill prove an institution of incalculable Avorth both to society and to the individual. But these are but its negative advantages. Its scope is far Avider, its object higher; its possible and probable results such as will not only meet a great social need, but work avast social reformation; for its object is curative as well as protective. It is established, not merely to relieve society, but to restore the individual. It invites as well as restrains, and repudiates the idea of a punishment in the emphatic assertion of a privi- lege, such as the inebriate, in every lapse of his self-abandon- ment, and in proportion to his culture and sensibility, longs for as the one possible safe-guard and solace of a perverted existence,—the privilege of sequestration from the reproach of the Avorld, from the incessant wound,s of self-respect, from temptation and despair,—the privilege of sympathy, of resources that may revive latent aspirations, and win mind 230 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. and body to healthful reaction. Not as a culprit, but as an unfortunate man and brother,—not as a criminal, but as a diseased subject,—is it proposed to receive the inebriate. Kemovred, as he is, from the familiar scenes of conscious deg- radation, environed by the serene beauty and freshness of nature, subjected to a wise hygiene, and furnished with the means of salubrious recreation and genial culture, an oppor- tunity is secured to cast off the thraldom, to heal the disease, to recuperate the exhausted poAvers; and, if too late forthis, at least, for the retirement and repose, the alleviation and the moral support AvhereAvith the "good physician" ministers to declining nature. Indeed, the economy not less than the natural beauty of Binghamton, its situation, aspects, and resources, justify its selection as one of the best possible locations for the first Ine- briate Asylum. Abundantly supplied with the products of farm and dairy, accessible with equal facility from New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, by lines of railroad in constant operation, seated very nearly in the centre of the State, it at the same time is embosomed in rural seclusion. It is to the individual zeal, assiduity, and gratuitous la- bors of the founder of the Inebriate Asylum, that we OAve this noble institution. A partial study of the pathology, of ine- briety so enlisted his professional interest, that the spectacle of its incalculable ravages in his OAvn country, and a convic- tion of the inadequacy of the measures instituted to with- stand its prevalence, led him to a resolution to examine its history and character in other lands, and if possible, to make it the object of medical treatment on -a large scale. He passed twelve years in the study of the subject; he visited the principal cities of Great Britain, France, Russia., Ger- many, the United States and Canada, collecting statistics of the Aice and the phenomena of the disease,—making hundreds of dissections to note its morbid conditions, and, on returning to his native country, he laid the result of his researches before the most eminent living members of his profession, and, armed Avith their deliberate opinions, appealed to the public spirit and the Christian beneATolence of the State of NeAV York, to co-operateAvith him in the establishment of an Inebriate Asylum. His success in the treatment of HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 231 several cases deemed hopeless Avon for his project the respect of a certain number of intelligent and influential persons; the medical fraternity recognized the need and value of his labors; and a feAv earnest individuals, Avhose private experience gave them ample reason to hail the prospect of such an enterprise, advocated his cause. But, like all pro- jectors of neAV schemes of social reform, he met with no small share of ridicule and of opposition. Fortunately the founder had the self-reliance and persistency indispensable to success; and choosing for the first allies in his philanthro- pise enterprise Drs. A'alentine Mott and John AY. Francis, of Ncav York, through the emphatic endorsement of the one and the ardent advocacy of the other he soon gained the sympathies of scientific lovers of humanity. We consider the remarkable success, however, which has attended this enterprise, as in no small degree owing to the fact that an individual, instead of an association, initiated and con- ducted it. To this we ascribe the economy of the fiscal arrangements, the rapid advancement of the work, the enlist- ment of public men in its behalf, and the effective manner in Avhich the 'great undertaking has been carried on,—so true is it that one man, Avith all his heart and will devoted to a cause, .Avill achieve more than twenty among whom the responsibility is divided. The founder has not only been the most able expositor of his OAvn vast project, but, by per- sonal appeals, he collected a hundred thousand dollars towards the building fund, secured the advocacy of the press and the pulpit, and, by dint of sheer perseverance obtained a liberal charter and grants from the Legislature of the State, besides superintending the erection of the edifice, enlightening public opinion, attracting public sympathy, and thus constantly enhancing the moral and material aid requisite for ultimate and complete success. He has acted upon a conviction that the best minds of the.country should be identified with the cause to insure its legitimate triumph; and, though venal legislators and narrow financiers have from time to time tliAvarted him, they have never turned him from his path. In comparing the expense already incurred Avith that which similar public edifices have cost, it is remark- able hoAV large an amount individual supervision, and the 232 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. \ freedom from subordinate agents, who ahvays intervene betAveen corporate bodies and their fulfilled contracts, have saved. The founder has demonstrated that many inebriates and perhaps nearly all the class usually regarded as hopeless, are so from hereditary physical causes; that they must be treated as the subjects of a disease, and can be rescued only by hygienic means. He has carefully studied, not only the effect of stimulants upon the human system, and the primary causes of the morbid appetite for them, but has so intelli- gently experimented with ameliorative processes, as, in many instances, to have wrought cures when the later stages of delirium tremens have been reached. Add to the salutary discipline of wise medical treatment, the moral agency of sympathetic local and economical expedients, and it is evi- dent that the elaborate diagnosis will often suggest and secure a radical improvement, and ahvays a most desirable alleviation. ***** Note.—In the summer of 1863 Mr. Henry T. Tuckerman visited the Ine- briate Asylum at Binghamton, and at that time gave the founder $300, as a special fund to be expended in the construction of the Winter Garden, and in the year 1864 presented to the Institution fifty valuable books for its library. Mr. Tuckerman resigned his Trusteeship iu 1866, because, as stated by himself, he apprehended that the policy of Dr. Parker would des- troy the Institution. CHAPTER VII. After the death of President Mott the writer sug- gested as his successor Dr. Willard Parker, as a physician well equipped to make an able President. There was but one trustee who objected to this suggestion, but he made no direct charges against him. Dr. Parker sub- scribed for two shares of the Asylum stock in 1856, and paid for them in 1858. He was elected its president in 1865, and continued in that office for twelve years. He visited the Asylum for the first time in 1865, and spent part of tAvo days there. He remarked Avhile walking through the Asylum buildings that they were not as far advanced toward completion as he had supposed. The writer replied that the labor of a life-time is to be per- formed before the day of its completion dawns, and that such an enterprise needed men with large hearts and unchanging faith—such men as Mott and Francis—who had served its cause faithfully for a score of years. Dr. Parker then inquired hoAV many patients were then in the Asylum under treatment; hoAV many had died since the opening of the Asylum; and whether its income from patients had exceeded its expenditures. The answer to these questions was, that the income from patients had exceeded the expenditures, that the Asylum had not lost a patient by death, and that the number of patients then under treatment was thirty-five. Dr. Parker then stated that he was very sorry to see the patients laboring under so much mental irritation, (288) 234 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. and that he would suggest their having a larger liberty and their being placed upon their honor, as they were all gentlemen belonging to Christian households. " This is the only plan which can make the Asylum popular with the patients." The writer replied that the mental disturbance of the patient proceeded from the morbid conditions of the brain and stomach, and that his sur- roundings did not in any way enter into the physical causes of his disease; that he should remember that among the patients under treatment in the Asylum were homicidal and suicidal dipsomaniacs, thieves and liars, the destroyers of homes and violators of the marriage vows, and that all of these mental, social and criminal condi- tions were the effects of a physical disease as much as delirium in typhus fever; that no better illustration of the utter loss of self-control in the inebriate, and the price he will pay for a single drink is afforded than in the story related by Professor Mussey, of Cincinnati. " A few years ago," said the professor, " a tippler was put into the almshouse in Massachusetts. Within a few days he devised numerous expedients to procure rum, but failed. At length, however, he hit upon one which was successful. He went into the wood-yard of the establishment, and placing one hand upon a block and with an axe in the other, he struck it off at a single blow. With the stump raised and streaming he ran into the house, and cried ' Get some rum, get some rum, my hand is off.' In the confusion and bustle of the occasion a bowl of rum was brought, into which he plunged the bleeding member of his body, then raised the bowl to his mouth, drinking freely, and exclaimed, 'I am satis- fied.'" "It is not strange," continued the writer, "that the inebriate, under such an ungovernable thirst, will pour into your ear, and also into the ear of his friends, HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 235 his invented wrongs and misrepresentations for the pur- pose of regaining his liberty and of satisfying his morbid appetite. The promises and the honor of the patient have all been exhausted at home before he reaches the Asylum; therefore Ave recognize no promise nor pledge in the treatment of the inebriate patient. We do throw off restraints as the patient improves in physical condi- tion, and never make an exception in this treatment, Facts are better than theories to prove the necessity of controlling the inebriate in hospitals. These facts are recorded in the suicides and homicides of the inebriate ever since Noah got drunk, and, as Dr. Mott stated it, " the friends of the Asylum did not propose to use argu- ments to prove the necessity of controlling the drunkard in hospitals, when the past and present experience of the world affords overwhelming facts upon which that necessity was founded." As the discussion was prolonged, it became more and more intensified, and the policy of Dr. Parker was foreshadoAved in his statements and insinuations, Avhich the writer did not fail to comprehend. The first meeting of the board in which Dr. Parker participated, was held in the city of New York, Decem- ber 27th, 1865. The folloAving resolutions were origin- ated by Dr, Parker, and unanimously passed by the board: Resolved, That a committee be elected by this board to be called the Executive Committee. The said committee shall be composed of eight trustees whose duty it shall be to hold a monthly meeting in the city of Xcav York, and to receive reports from the Aisiting and Medical Committees. Three shall constitute a quorum. Resolved, That the Executive Committee shall meet on the first AVednesday after the first Monday of each month. 236 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Resolved, That a committee be elected by this board to be called the Medical Committee. The said Committee shall be composed of three physicians, one of AArhom shall visit the Asylum once a week, and examine the physical and sanitary condition of the patients, and report the same in writing to the Executive Committee on the first Monday of each month. Resolved, That John G. Orton, AI. D.', S. H. French, AI. D., and George Burr, M. D., shall constitute said com- mittee. The Medical Committee made their valuable reports to the Executive Committee, in detail, of the physical condition of the patients each month, and made such suggestions as their careful observations prompted. The Executive Committee, of Avhich Dr. Parker was chair- man, totally failed to make their report to the board of trustees at their annual meeting in 1866, or at any sub- sequent meeting. Thus the board failed to receive the report of the Medical Committee, and thus lost the fruit- age of their painstaking labor. No action was taken on the part of Dr. Parker to continue the services of the Medical Committee at the annual meeting in 1866 ; so it died in the arms of its pretended friends. The writer suggested to Dr. Parker that the Medical Committee be continued, as their services had been of great value to the Asylum, and no one could appreciate them better than he, the founder. The Executive Committee also died. "The cause of its death," said Air. Beekman, " was the mental decay of its progenitor." The plans by which Dr. Parker and his friends in the board sought to secure the control of the Asylum were foreshadowed when he induced a number of the trustees to resign their trusteeship, and secured the elec- tion of his oavii friends in their place. Dr. Parker wrote to the trustees longest in the board that he wished a full HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 237 attendance at every meeting of the board, tne interests of the Asylum demanding their presence; and, t|bat, if it were beyond their power to attend, he, under the cir- cumstances, would solicit their resignation. With this move Dr. Parker supposed that he had gained a sufficient number of friends in the board to control its organiza- tion, and (if it were necessary to carry out his plans) to dismiss the patients, close the Asylum, and to expel the founder. At the annual election of trustees held June 6, 1866, the ticket was proposed and voted for by the stockholders present, none of the proxies of the absent stockholders being used. The founder had in his pos- session a sufficient number of proxies to elect his friends, but he preferred peace to war. Immediately after this meeting, the writer stated to Dr. Parker that no institution could survive dissensions and divided counsels. "Such elements introduced into the board would bury the Asylum in its grave and write its epitaph. It has come to this, Dr. Parker, either the policy which you advocate is to be the future policy of the Asylum, or the policy which Dr. Mott and Dr. Francis have established. It is for the board to decide which of the two shall in future govern the Institution. You have contributed twenty dollars to this work, and your friends in the board haA^e contri- buted ten dollars each; thus you will see that the sacri- fice of yourself and friends in resigning your trustee- ships wrill be small indeed. Your two shares of stock, the fifteen shares of your friends, all expenses incurred in attending the meetings of the board, and also a com- pensation for the time given to the Institution shall be paid to you and to them. This offer is made because the founder is solely responsible for your election as 238 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. President of the Corporation." Dr. ParKer replied that he should not resign on these conditions or on any others that might be offered. " At the meeting of the board of trustees to-day," replied the writer, "you made a statement, noAv recorded in the minutes of the board, as follows: The credit of successful prosecution of the building of the Asylum, to the present time solely belongs to its founder; that you, Dr. Parker, were in favor of a liberal compensation being allowed to him for his labors to the present time. That it was important that a settlement should be made with him. Accord- ingly it was moved and voted that the Financial Com- mittee be and they are hereby directed to confer with Dr. Turner in regard to his account against the New York State Inebriate Asylum to this date, and to decide as to the amount of monies to be paid him on his account against said Asylum, and that they report their proceedings hereafter to the board at a subsequent meeting. This record," continued the writer, "shoAvs that you had forgotten Dr. Mott's resolutions unani- mously passed by the board of trustees, Dec. 10, 1862, which provides that the services, and expenses incurred in building the New York State Inebriate Asylum, shall be credited to the founder as a subscription to its capital stock.* This fact was well knowm to you, as you had consulted with your friends about these same reso- lutions as standing in the way of your plans to control the Asylum, and hence you have to-day made a propo- sition to settle with the founder upon a monied basis,— an attempt on your part to repudiate a contract made by the board, authorized by Dr. Mott's resolutions that the founder shall be credited on the stock book for all services and expenses rendered and incurred by said founder in founding and building the New York State * Sec page 173. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 239 Inebriate Asylum." The founder further stated that he should never make out a bill against the Asylum for his services in founding and building the same, upon a monied basis. He also stated to Dr. Parker that he had been shoAvm letters written by him to the patients in which he had promised them that the management of the Asylum should be changed, and that every patient would be placed upon his honor and treated as a gentle- man,—thus attempting to establish a paramount policy of making the Asylum popular with its patients. It will be well to state at this point that the follow- ing resolution offered at a meeting of the board Sept. 11, 1866, and of which Dr. Parker was the author, exemplifies his interest in the founder's receiving full compensation for his work: Resolved, That J. Edward Turner present his aecount against the NeAV York State Inebriate Asylum to the com- mittee appointed to investigate the financial affairs of said Asylum within tAventy days, and if said Turner fail to pre- sent said account to said committee, he is hereby expelled from the board. This resolution shows that had Dr. Parker and friends had the power they would, then and there, with- out pretense or excuse, have expelled the founder from the board and from the Asylum. After discussing this resolution, the board decided that it had no power to dismiss a trustee. The resolution was then passed with- out its penalty. The founder stated to the board that he had never anticipated that the gentlemen whom he had invited to co-operate Avith him in building the Asylum, would have mutinied against their host; such a proceed- ing would have put to blush the banditti of Italy. Soon after the last annual meeting of the board, Mr. Birdsall called upon the founder, and stated that 240 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Dr. Parker and a number of the trustees had consulted together, and had decided to give the founder a furlough of two years, and that the time could be spent in travel- ing abroad with his family, the Asylum paying all the expenses of the trip, and a salary in addition. " It was admitted by every one," said Mr. Birdsall, "acquainted with your labors in building up the Asylum, that you have been overworked, and that your health has been sadly impaired thereby." The writer thanked Mr. Birdsall for his sympathy and anxiety for the impaired health of the founder, and stated that his generous offer would be considered for a few days. It had been rumored in Binghamton, in the meantime, that the founder Avas about to give up his work at the Asylum, and take a trip to Europe for his health, the celebrated surgeon, Dr. Parker, having recommended him to stop work and seek rest abroad. Mrs. Harris, a lady of Binghamton, who had taken an interest in the Asylum for many years, met Mr. Bird- sall on the street one day, and said she had heard that Dr. Turner was about going abroad for his health, expressing herself as deeply impressed with the generous offer on the part of Dr. Parker to secure the rest, recrea- tion and compensation of the founder during his absence. She, therefore, wished to inquire of Mr. Birdsall if on his return he would be re-instated as superintendent of the Asylum. Mr. Birdsall replied that that question would be an open one. Mr. Birdsall called upon the founder on June 21th, and reported the receipt of a letter from Dr. Parker inquiring if he had decided to accept the proposed vaca- tion of tAvo years, and that he, Mr. Birdsall, had called to receive a final answer. The founder replied that he had decided to decline Dr. Parker's offer, that his health HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 241 has been as good during the past year as for the past ten years, that he was able to do as much work as at any previous time of his life, that he had already been twice in Europe, and that a third trip would be no induce- ment to him to leave the Asylum. Air. Birdsall replied, " If you do not accept this offer we have determined to drive you out of the Institution, and to disgrace you." The day after this interview the Committee on Management and Discipline held a meeting at the Asy- lum, dismissed the superintendent, and placed the assist- ant-physician, Dr. Hill, in charge of the Institution, instructing him to put the patients upon their honor, and to permit them to go and come at pleasure. On the evening of the same day the "dismissed" superintendent left the Asylum for NeAV Y'ork city. After calling upon ex-Governor Hunt, Mr. Ruggles, Air. Beekman and Air. Worrall, and procuring their names to a call for a special meeting of the board of trustees to be held at the office of the Asylum on July 10th, 1866, he called upon Dr. Parker, and suggested to him that the best interests of the Asylum demanded his resignation of the Presidency. " Your plans, Dr. Parker, for recon- structing the Asylum upon a policy of making the Hos- pital popular with the drunkard, and, at the same time, removing all restraint over him, is even more absurd and insane than the plan of the demented Darling Goodfel- low, M. D., LL. D., who established a hospital for oper- atiA-e surgery upon the sole plan of making his hospital popular Avith the patient. Dr. GoodfelloAV advertised surgery without a knife, and his hospital without a butcher. The new and the old-fangled appliances invented by the ancient and the modern surgeon were prohibited in the mind cure hospital. ' Such appliances,' said he, ' we regard as nothing but instruments of torture 16 242 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. in the hands of the surgeon—our plan is to make the hospital popular with the patient. This must be done even at the sacrifice of the arm, the leg, or the life of the patient.' Dr. Goodfellow's hospital was no doubt popular with the ignorant patient, but not with such men as Mott, Sir Ashley Cooper, or Velpeau. The fruit- age of such a hospital would be seen by visiting its wards, by examining its patients, by looking in upon its dead-house, and by conversing with its demented pro- jector and organizer. Surgery demands to-day, for the successful treatment of its patient, every appliance that science can suggest, or that experience can command, and with all these aids, the hospital for operative surgery will be a failure if it has no power to control its patient; and no man living knows this better than you, Dr. Parker. 'The NeAV York State Inebriate Asylum was built,' said Dr. Mott, 'for the medical treatment and control of a class of patients who have a compound fracture all over them, with mental and moral dislocations, beside being diseased in every membrane, tissue and nerve of their victimized bodies; hence the necessity of the legal splint and bandage to hold this sick man in place during the course of medical treatment. Nothing short of this appliance can make the Inebriate Asylum a success.' As your yearly income, Dr. Parker, exceeds sixty thou- sand dollars, and is yearly increasing, the founder would suggest that, out of your ample fortune, you provide a fund to build and endow an inebriate asylum in which to carry out your idea of making it popular with the inebriate. Do this work with your own resources, and you will prove to mankind that you have confidence in your plan, faith in your policy, and a profound convic- tion of your superior knowledge and experience over those of Drs. Mott and Francis, and you will also earn HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 243 the admiration of all drunkards; you will be classed by them with such benefactors as the demented Dr. Darling Goodfellow." The founder then read to Dr. Parker the following letter from Colonel J. W. J., a graduate of West Point, and an ex-patient of the Inebriate Asylum: Binghamton, N. Y., June 25th, 1866. Dr. J. Edward Turner. My Dear Sir:—The hearts of all your friends are filled with sorroAV at learning what has this day occurred. In assuring you of my sympathy, I cannot refrain from the expression of my grateful sense of your uniform courtesy and kindness, from the time I entered the Asylum until I left it, as I hope and trust, a restored man. I have witnessed for a long period the difficulties by which you were surrounded, and Avith Avhich you have been obliged to contend—originating, organizing and conducting a new and untried enterprise, Avith insufficient means and appliances, and I have Avondered at the energy and persever- ance with Avhich all these obstacles have been overcome or thrust aside. Coming here as I did, prepared to find rules and regula- tions in force, Avhich, under ordinary circumstances, a man in health and strength Avould not Avish to subject himself to, yet knowing the necessity of order, I came prepared to con- form to such rules as I should find established, and to co-op- erate with you and your assistant, in efforts to effect a re-construction. I am more than satisfied with the results. AAithout im- pugning the motives of those, who have not taken the same view of Avholesome restraint as I have done, I may yet say, that those who, with a contented and quiet spirit, have tried to "hold up the hands" raised to Heaven in their behalf— Avho have manfully and earnestly striven to control them- selves, have not only been most in the way of being bene- fited, but have uniformly reaped the substantial good, which by the blessing of God, this Asylum is destined to work out. 244 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. May this dark cloud pass away, and may you see many days of prosperity and honor—may you see this enterprise, the child of your untiring efforts, rising in the confidence of your felloAv men and justifying your fondest hopes; and as you draw towards the serene evening of life, may you have the rich reward of knowing that you have been the instru- ment, in the hands of God, by whom many, very many, have been brought back to life; and that from every quarter of the land, ascend the daily prayers of "him who was ready to perish," for blessings on your head. Fear not, ye shall in nowise lose your reward." I am very truly, your sincere friend, J. AY. J. During the interview Dr. Parker read the following telegram from Air. Birdsall: "Turner left the Asylum at midnight, has taken all the books and papers of the Institution, and has gone to the city of New York. Signed, AbSBURX BIRDSALL. * The founder asked Dr. Parker if he had any facts, experience, or well founded theories by which he could justify his plan of making the New York State Inebriate Asylum a hospital for the mind cure of the inebriate. Dr. Parker replied that he wished to make the Asylum popular with the inebriate, and that he should sacrifice every thing to that end, so that the inebriate patient would be drawn towards its healing wards as the leper was drawn towards the living waters of Bethesda. Thus ended the last call, and the last interview between Dr. Parker and the founder of the New YTork State Inebriate Asylum.* * During the first three years of Dr. Parker's scheme of trusting to the honor of the inebriate patients, there were three suicides among them; one homicidal case which ended in the stabbing of the superintendent, Dr. Day; four other deaths from alcoholism, beside many little irregularities among the patients, such as being arrested in town; fined and committed to jail for drunkenness and disturbing the peace; remaining over night in town, and going back to the Asylum in the grey of the morning with their pockets loaded and themselves loaded,—the sympathizing friend in waiting to help them through the AvindoAv and into bed. Such were frequent occurrences at the Asylum under Dr. Parker's administration. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 245 MEETING OF THE BOARD JULY 10TH, 1866. The special meeting of the Board called for the purpose of reviewing the action of the Committee on Discipline and Alanagement in dismissing and disgracing the founder, Avas held at the Asylum, July 10th, 1866, at 10 a. m. The President of the Board, Dr. Willard Par- ker, called the meeting to order. The minutes of the meeting of June 6th, 1866, were read and approved. The following resolution was then offered by Judge Doolittle, and unanimously passed: Resolved, "That a committee of five be appointed by the chairman to ascer- tain and report whether any, and if any, who of those who have been elected trustees of this Asylum, are in the opinion of said committee not eligible to such office." The chairman appointed on such committee, ex-Chancellor Reuben H. Wahvorth, Judge Joseph Mullin, ex-Judge William T. McCoun, Hon. Robert Campbell, and Hemy W. Rogers, Esq. It was moved and seconded that the Board take a recess to aAvait the report of said commitee. The Board having again organized, the committee made the following report through their chairman, R. H. Wal- worth, in the following resolutions, which were unani- mously adopted: 1. Resolved, "That the folloAving named persons are, and were at the last election of trustees of this Asylum, ineli- gible to the office of such trustee, and that their offices are de- clared vacant; viz: J.G.Allen, L. Draper, J. B. Williams, H.S. Griswold, A. Birdsall, AY. P. Pope, P. S. Danforth, J. K. Place, (3. D. Swan, R. Alather, C. P. Kirkland." Resolved, "That those persons who subscribed to pur- chase the land donated to this Asylum to procure its location at Binghamton, are not subscribers or stockholders Avithin the true intent and meaning of the Charter and By-laws, and are therefore ineligible to the office of trustee, and are not entitled to vote at any election under said Charter." 246 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. On motion of Judge Doolittle the following resolu- tion was adopted: u Resolved, That a special meeting of this Board be called to meet at this place on the second Tuesday in September next at 10 a.m., forthe purpose of filling the vacancies iioav existing in this Board, and that the Secretary of this Board is hereby directed to give immediate notice of such meeting in the manner prescribed by Chapter II., Article II., of the By-laAvs of this Institution." The Hon. R, H. Walworth stated to the Board that he had not heard before reaching Binghamton any charges against its Superintendent or any of its officers, but since his arrival here he had heard rumors, and that if there were w^ere any charges to be made by members present they are requested to do the same now, in order that they may be investigated. He said he thought this due alike to the founder and to the Board. Hon. James W. Beekman stated that there Avere charges in writing noAv existing against the founder, and that he had seen the same; that he Avas a friend of Dr. Turner, and, as such, he thought that the reputation of the founder and of his family demanded that the charges be produced in order that the same might be investigated. There was no response to the challenge of Chancellor Wahvorth, or of Senator Beekman, although the Presi- dent, Dr. Parker, had in his possession the written charges. "The policy of the management," said the Chancellor, " is never to present the charges for investi- gation, but to keep them afloat before the world until the founder is clouded, and the Asylum is destroyed. Y7ou can not destroy the author of this Institution, and, at the same time, preserve his great work as a monu- ment to his assassin." On motion of James W. Beekman the following •resolutions wrere adopted: HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 247 "1. Resolved, That Reuben II. AValworth, William T. McCoun, Henry AY. Rogers, Robert Campbell, Joseph Alullin, and Dr. AAillard Parker, be and hereby are appointed a com- mittee to investigate the financial affairs of this Institution from its organization, and that they be requested to make a full report of the resnlt thereof to this Board, together with such suggestions in regard to the same, as they shall consider the interests of this Institution require, on the second Tues- day in September next." " 2. Resolved, That the committee in the last preceding resolution named, be requested to fully investigate all charges which shall be within fifteen days from this date filed with said committee in writing, signed by any trustee or any other responsible person against any officer of this institution, and to report the resnlt thereof to this Board, together with any suggestion they may deem it advisable to make, on the second Tuesday in September next." The point having been raised as to the duties and powers of the Committee on Alanagement and Discipline, Chancellor Wahvorth said "the power is vested in the Trustees only, to employ and discharge the officers of the Institution, consequently the recent action of the said committee had been illegal," (in removing the founder.) MEETING OF THE BOARD SEPTEMBER IItH, 1866. Pursuant to a resolution of the Board passed at the special meeting on July 10th, 1866, the Board held a meeting at the Asylum on September 11th, 1866, at 10 a. m., for the purpose of filling the fifteen vacancies, cre- ated by a resolution of the Board passed July 10th, 1866, declaring the ineligibility of fifteen gentlemen to hold the office of trustee. A quorum being present, Dr. Parker took the chair, and called the meeting to order. The President requested the Roll of Trustees to be called. The names of all 248 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. those trustees whose seats had not been declared vacant at the July meeting were called, and the following gen- tlemen responded to their names: Parker, Post, Brins- made, Conkling, Munroe, Shonnard, Juliand, Osborn, Sanford, Doolittle, Turner. The folloAving trustees declared ineligible by the Board July 10th, 1866, on account of their not being stockholders in the Corpora- tion, came in notwitstanding, and took their seats, namely: Birdsall, Pope, Mather, Griswold, and Place. Mr. Charles W. Sanford moved " That the names of all the gentlemen who were recorded as trustees at the annual election June 6th, 1866, be called." Air. Doo- little objected to the motion. The chairman, Dr. Parker, ruled that those trustees whose seats had been declared vacant at the meeting July 10th, 1866, were still legal trustees, as he had consulted high legal authority on the subject; and that there were no vacancies to be filled in the Board, excepting that caused by the resignation of Air. Kirkland. The Ayes for sustaining the motion of Air. Sanford were, Parker, Munroe, Rogers, Conkling, Brinsmade, Post, Osborn, Pope, Mather, Place, Griswold—12; Nays, Shonnard, Doolittle, Juliand, Turner—4. The names of all the Trustees as recorded at the annual election of June 6th, 1866, were now read, and the following named gentlemen responded: Parker, Post, Conkling, Brinsmade, Munroe, Doolittle, Juliand, Shon- nard, Osborn, Griswold, Birdsall, Pope, Rogers, Sanford, Turner, Place, and Mather. Messrs. Danforth, Harris, and Pumpelly, declined to answer, as they did not con- sider themselves trustees. It was moved and carried to fill the vacancy in the Board occasioned by the resignation of the Hon. Charles P. Kirkland, of New York, whose resignation had been HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 249 accepted. It was moved and voted that Mr. Kirkland be elected a trustee of this Asylum. The following resolution offered by Mr. Griswold was passed: "Resolved, That this Board has the power and authority to proceed at once and fill any vacancy Avhich may occur by resignation during the sitting of the Board." Richard Mather then presented his resignation as trustee. Moved and voted to accept the resignation of Mr. Mather. Judge Doolittle protested against this mode of procedure, and declared that the charter required a notice and a meeting duly called for the pur- pose of filling vacancies. On the objection of Judge Doolittle, the ayes and nays were called with the fol- io Aving result Ayes, 12, nays, 7. Moved and seconded that Richard Mather be elected a trustee of this Asylum. Mr. Mather received 13 votes, and was declared elected. Mr Pope offered his resignation as trustee. Voted to accept the resignation of Air. Pope. Voted that Mr. Pope be elected a trustee of this Asylum. Air. Pope received 11 votes, blank, 1, and was declared elected. Mr Birdsall offered his resignation as trustee of the Asylum. Moved and voted to accept the resigna- tion of Mr Birdsall. Air. Osborn stated that Air. Birds- all had became a stockholder by paying ten dollars into the Treasury. Moved and voted that Mr. Birdsall be elected a trustee of this Asylum. Mr. Birdsall received 11 votes, blanks, 2, and was declared elected. Mr. Griswold presented his resignation as trustee. Moved and voted to accept the resignation of Judge Griswold. Moved and voted that Judge Griswold be elected a trustee of this Asylum. Mr. Griswold received 14 votes, and was declared elected. 250 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Mr. Place, of New York, offered his resignation as trustee of the Asylum. Moved and voted that it be accepted. Aloved and voted that Mr. Place be elected a trustee of the Asylum. Mr. Place received 12 votes, and was declared elected trustee. Aloved and voted that Air. Birdsall be elected Sec- ond Vice-President to fill the vacancy in that office. Moved and voted that Dr. Post be appointed Teller for inspecting the ballots to be cast for the election of members to the several standing committees organized at the annual meeting June 6th, 1866. It was voted that Mr. Griswold, Air. Birdsall and Air. Mather be elected as members of the Committee on Finance as organized at the last annual meeting. It was moved and voted that Air. Griswold, Air. Mather and Air. Pope be elected members of the Com- mittee on Construction and Repairs as organized at the last annual meeting. It was voted that Air. Griswold, Mr. Birdsall and Mr. Pope be elected members of the Committee on Manage- ment and Discipline as organized at the last annual meeting June 6th, 1866. A misunderstanding having arisen on the part of Dr. Parker as to the employment of Mr. Bull on the 10th July last to examine the accounts of the Asylum from its organization, it aatis voted that the compensa- tion of Air. Bull as accountant for past and future ser- vices be left to the action of the Finance Committee. The Committee consisting of Chancellor Walworth, Judge McCoun, Mr. Rogers, Air. Campbell, Judge Mul- lin and Dr. Parker, appointed at the last meeting, to investigate all the financial affairs of the " New York State Inebriate Asylum " from its organization, did not HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 251 report, as the examination of the accounts had not been entirely completed. Voted to discharge said committee. THE SAME COMMITTEE, APPOINTED ALSO TO INVESTIGATE ANY CHARGES THAT MIGHT BE FILED WITH THEAI AGAINST ANY; OFFICER OF THE INSTITUTION, DID NOT RE- PORT ANY CHARGES AS HAVING BEEN FILED, AND IT WAS VOTED TO DISCHARGE SAID COMMITTEE. Moved and voted that Peter S. Danforth, James W. Beekman, and James K. Place be, and they are, appointed a Committee to examine the accounts of the NeAV York State Inebriate Asylum, and report thereon to the Board. The following resolution was passed : u Iiesolved, That all books and papers of this Institu- tion in relation to Finance, which are in the hands of any of the officers of the Board or of any other person, be subject to the order of the Chairman of the Special Committee for the use of said Committee, and be re- turned to the Board at the report of the Committee." It was moved and voted that Air. Osborn present the report of the Finance Committee. Air. Osborn pre- sented and read the action had in relation to settling with J. EdAvard Turner for services from 1862 to the present. Voted to accept Air. OsbonYs report. Moved and voted that the fence in course of con- struction around the Asylum ground, be for the present discontinued. 1. Resolved, That the treatment of patients be discon- tinued and the Asylum closed on the 1st of October next, until the building shall be completed for the reception of patients. 252 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 2. Resolved, That the building and grounds and all the property of the Asylum, be placed, on the 1st of October, under the immediate and entire control of the Committee on Construction, subject to the direction of the Trustee. The following resolution was passed: Resolved, "That the Chairman appoint a committee to make a statement to the public why theinstitution is closed." The Chairman failed to announce the members of this committee, either at this meeting, or at any subse- quent time, showing that the closing of the Institution was a part of the scheme to drive out the founder.* Dr. Parker, Vice-President Birdsall and their asso- ciates, decided to stop all supplies for the Asylum, in order to starve out the families of the founder and Dr. Hill, assistant physician. To consummate this, Air. Birdsall notified all the tradesmen in town accustomed to furnishing supplies to the Asylum, to deliver nothing in future ordered by the founder or Dr. Hill. Mr. Birdsall also gave positive orders to the Asylum farmer not to deliver any of the products of the farm to the Asylum, thus cutting off all supplies of milk and butter. Mrs. Turner called upon the farmer, and informed him that her young children had been using the milk of one cow, and that a change might make the babies sick and endanger their lh-es. The farmer replied that President Parker's and Vice-President Birdsall's order was posi- tive not under any circumstances to deliver any of the products of the farm to the Asylum. * AA'hen the meeting- of the Board, Sept. 11th, 1866, adjourned, Judge Doolittle requested the Register, Dr. Gardner, to make a copy of the pro- ceedings of the two meetings of the Board of July 1.0th, 1866 and Sept. 11th, 1866, and to certify the same as being correct. The Judge stated that he wished to send an account of these meetings to the absent Trustees, and also to show them to his professional friends. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 25:1 A laborer named Pat O'Shea, employed several years at the Asylum, heard that the little children were crying for their supper, their supply of milk being cut off by Air. Birdsall. Pat's manly nature Avas touched with sympathy for the little ones, and he hurried home and told his wife Bridget the story. This touched the heart of Bridget as a mother, and she was soon on her way across the hills to the Asylum, with a pail of milk on her head. Night and morning for one week this poor woman was seen on her errand of mere)', not even asking compensation for her long and tedious walks. On the morning of the arrival of the writer from his ten days absence, he met Bridget on her way to the Asylum with her pail of milk on her head, and for the first time he learned from Bridget the measures adopted by Mr. Birdsall in the matter of supplies; that the babies by his measures had been deprived of their milk; and that she was then on her way to supply the children with their daily food. Bridget remarked that it was a mean and cruel act for any one to attempt to deprive innocent children of their daily food, and that no one but a monster would commit such a sin. Such a monster her old priest in Ireland had described—a landlord who attempted to starve his tenants. "This man," said the priest, " was born with a dead soul in him, and the church and purgatory would not save him." "This is the trouble Avith Vice-President Birdsall," said Bridget. On September 30th, 1866, four of the trustees of the Asylum, Air. Birdsall, Mr. Mather, Mr. Pope and Mr. Place, were enjoined, by Judge Bacon, of Utica, from acting as trustees. This injunction was continued three months. MONTHLY MEETING OCTOBER 9TH, 1866. Pursuant to the By-laws of the New York State Inebriate Asylum a monthly meeting of the Trustees of said Asylum 254 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. was held at the office of said Asylum in Binghamton, on Tuesday, the 9th day of October, 1866, at ten o'clock a. m.; present, Frederick Juliand, George J. Pumpelly, EdAvard Sumner, William Harris, J. EdAvard Turner, William R. Osborn, and Charles AY. Sanford. A quorum being present, in the absence of the President, 1st and 2d Vice-Presidents, Hon. F. Juliand was elected President pro tern. The reading of the minutes of the last meeting was dispensed Avith by a vote of the board. The following resolution was passed after debate, Mr. Osborn and Mr. Sanford voting against the resolution. Resolved, That J. EdAvard Turner be, and he is hereby appointed Superintendent of the New York State Ine- briate Asylum until the 18th day of October next, with full poAver to control the farm products and stock of said Asy- lum ; also the mechanics, farm hands, and laborers employed in and around said Asylum. Voted to adjourn to 17th of October, 1866.* (Read and approved on the 17th day of October.) T. JEFFERSON GARDNER, Registrar. At the meeting of the board of trustees October 17th, 1866, it was moved by ex-Governor Campbell that the founder be and hereby is continued in charge of the Asylum buildings, until the result of legislative action upon the subject is determined. This motion was opposed by Mr. Rogers, on the ground that the vital interests of a great institution demanded that the character of its executive officer should be above reproach, and that the re-election of the founder, whose name is coupled with the crime of arson, and with many other disreputable stories, would be a disgrace to the board of trustees and a sure dowmfall to the Asylum. * After the adjournment of the meeting Messrs. Juliand, Harris and Sumner called upon the farmer of the Asylum and informed him that Vice- President Birdsall had been displaced, and that all authority Avas vested in the Superintendent, and that he must act under his instructions. Thus the founder was re-instated for the second time, and the starving out process came to an end. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 255 Mr. Buggies advocated ex-Governor Campbell's motion as follows: "I have come here to-dav to attend this meeting of the board under very peculiar circumstances. I have relin- quished an engagement Avith President Barnard to make an address at the services of dedicating the building in which the School of Mines is to be inaugurated—a hcav department in Columbia College in which I have taken a great inter- est as a trustee, and as its originator. It has been my good fortune to be connected with the Astor Library as one of its original trustees, Avith Columbia College as trustee and one of its oldest friends, and with many other institutions where the success and usefulness of these great corporations depend upon harmonious action among the trustees, and at all times, and under all circum- stances, the policy of these institutions has been shaped and directed by the plans of their founders. I have never understood why the founder Avas indicted for arson until I arrived here this morning. Since my arrival, I have met several of the trustees, and have had a talk with them, each telling his OAvn story. One stated that the founder had set the building on fire, and that there Avas already positive evidence of his guilt. Another said that he was an embezzler; another, that he Avas a defaulter; another, that he was a thief; another, that he was a bigamist; another, that he Avas utterly unfit to manage the Asylum. All of these charges I dismiss as foul slander invented to destroy the man Avho has built this Asylum. If these charges had been true, you, who have made them, Avould have made them in Avriting, and filed them with the Investigating Com- mittee; but you failed to do it. The indictment is a part of the same conspiracy, and it will injure those Avho manipu- lated it more than it will injure the founder. No man in the board could afford to have this indictment over him but the man Avho has built the Asylum. No sane person would believe that a rational human being Avould Avork an entire life-time to found and build a pioneer hospital, and then des- troy it by fire, unless that human being Avas a parricide and utterly irresponsible. I Avould stake my life that a human 256 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. being actuated by the same motives, and surrounded by the same influences as the founder, could not have committed such a crime. I will go farther, I would stake my everlasting and eternal salvation upon the impossibility of the act. * * * Judge McCoun, at the close of these remarks, called for the previous (piestion. The Ayes and Nays being called for were as follows: Ayes, McCoun, Buggies, Campbell, Juliand, Worrall, Sumner, Harris, Pumpelly and Turner—9. Nays, Parker, Kogers, Conkling, San- ford, Munroe and Osborn—6. At this meeting the founder stated that he had received letters from thirty-nine of the medical superin- tendents of the insane asylums of North America, all endorsing the founder's policy of controlling the inebriate while under medical treatment in an asylum. These letters were read and approved by nine of the members, and opposed by Dr. Parker and five others. The following letter will serve to illustrate the general character of the thirty-nine received: Provincial Lunatic Asylum, \ Toronto, Aug. 31, 1866./ My Dear Sir:—I have to-day received your note of inquiry under date 24th, to Avhich I give instant attention. In reply to your first query, viz: ' Does your experience lead you to the conclusion that the inebriate needs less restraint than the chronic insane?' All that I have seen of lunacy resulting from intemperance has led me to regard inebriates as a very troublesome class of patients, and I am convinced they require more restraint than the chronic insane. 2nd. 'Have you found by observa/tion that they need less Avatchfulness on the part of the attendant than the chronic insane?' Answer. I think no class of insane patients requires more Avatchfulness on the part of all concerned in their treatment and care. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 257 3rd. 'Do you find you can trust to the honor of the inebriate more or less than to the honor of the chronic insane?' AnsAver. I repose very little trust in the honor of any insane person, though I may very often endeavor to lead my patients to believe I do. As to inebriates, I should have no faith in their sense of honor wherever or wheneATer temp- tation to their besetting sin might be presented. Even in the absence of lunacy I Avould act on this principle, and of course in its presence still more rigidly. Lastly. I would not ' attempt to control and treat the inebriate in our hospital Avithout rules, regulations, or (when needed) physical restraint,' and I think any man Avho would do so would be a fit candidate himself for treatment. Yours truly, JOSEPH WORKMAN, M. D., Medical Supt. P. L. Asylum, Toronto. The history of the following remarkable case of dipsomania was then cited by the founder to show that inebriety under some diseased conditions of the brain, was more dangerous than any form of insanity to be found in our insane asylums. "Six years since, a young man named William Comstock, residing in Madison Co. in this State, was attacked with delirium tremens for the third time. While under the attack he killed his father and mother, cut out their hearts, roasted and ate them. When this case was described to the late Dr. Mott, he at once replied that 'Such cases prove that the mad-house does not protect society against this form of madness, and that inebriate asylums having the poAver to control such cases wTould prevent a large proportion of crime. No man in his sane moments wTould think of treating such a class of patients, trusting simply to their honor or their pledge.'" At the meeting of the trustees, held at the office of the Asylum, December 19th, 1866, the Special Committee 17 258 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. \ appointed by the board September 11th, 1866, t inves- tigate the financial affairs of the Inebriate Asylum from the time of its organization, made their report through their chairman, Peter S. Danforth. Mr. Danforth reported that, out of an expenditure of $401,635.29, there was a deficit of two cents; that the books of the Asylum were kept by Dr. Gardner, Assist- ant Physician of the Asylum; that they were faithfully kept, and showed in detail all the expenditures of the Corporation; that the Institution's books, kept at the Asylum, enabled them to account for the money of the missing vouchers of the Treasurer, William R. Osborn; and, that the moneys received from patients were more in amount than the running expenses of the Institution. This report was signed by P. S. Danforth and J. W. Beekman. The following resolution, offered by Mr. Osborn, was adopted at this meeting: "Resolved, That Willard Parker, Peter S. Danforth, and John Conkling, be a committee to draft the annual report of the Trustees of the New York State Inebriate Asylum to the Legislature of the State." As the founder had made all previous reports to the Legislature, his friends advocated that the old custom be continued, but they were out-voted by Dr. Parker's friends. Dr. Parker and others in the board considered that, for the founder's account for his services to be credited to the capital stock of the Asylum as a subscription, was "excessive and inadmissible." The founder, in rendering his account, had deducted more than one-half from the amount which Dr. Mott's resolutions had provided for, his resolutions being based upon the amount of salary and perquisites of Dr. Gray, Superintendent of tbe Utica Insane Asylum, as estimated HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 259 by two of its trustees, one giYing $7,000, and the other §.7,500, as the amount Dr. Gray was receiving in money and living expenses, if such living expenses were pro- vided and paid for in the city of Utica, as folloAvs: 23 years salary at $7,000,...................................................$161,000 Interest on salary at 7 per cent,.......................................... 107,942 Total,.............................................................................$268,942 Although this amount did not include clerk hire, office rent, traveling expenses, printing, stationery, post- age, or legislative expenses at Albany, yet Dr. Parker represented the whole account as "excessive and inad- missible," and that "if such account was allowed on Dr. Alott's resolutions, the founder would be here forever, and we, who have subscribed for one or two shares each, would be left out in the cold, and there would be no help for us! As we have the power we will drive him out, and keep him out, and disgrace him!!!" A few days after this meeting of the board, the founder called upon Air. Buggies, who congratulated him upon Messrs. Danforth and Beekman's report, saying that on the 20th of December he read in the New York Herald the folioAAing telegram, dated Binghamton, De- cember 19th, 1866: "The trustees of the New York State Inebriate Asylum held a meeting at the Asylum this morning at 11 o'clock, Dr. Willard Parker, President. The Special Committee to whom Avas referred the investigation of all the financial affairs of the Institution from its organization to September 1st, 1866, reported through their chairman, Mr. Peter S. Danforth, that there had been expended by the Institution, $401,635.29, and the accounts of the Asylum were correct with the exception of tAvo cents missing on which a balance was forced. The Com- mittee appointed July 10th, 1866, to Avhom Avas referred the subject of investigating any charges that might be filed in Avriting with them against any officer of the Asylum by any 260 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. trustee or responsible person, reported through their chair- man, Reuben H. Wahvorth, by affidavit, that no charges had ever been filed with them, or made to any of the Committee against any officer of the Asylum." Mr. Buggies said, " After reading this telegram to Airs. Buggies, I remarked that the man who had handled $401,635.29 of the funds of the Asylum, and had only two cents sticking to his fingers, was deserving of a bet- ter fate and a better title than that of thief, embezzler, bigamist, and house-burner, so generously bestowred upon him by Dr. Parker and his friends." "My call this morning, Mr Buggies," said the founder, "is to discuss the interests of the Asylum, and to shape a policy by which it can be saved. Six months have already been consumed in Dr. Parker's campaign against me, and iioav a critical point in the affairs of the Asylum seems to have arrived, when it is a question whether its best interests require its real friends to leave it under protest, and for the time being, in the hands of its enemies, or to continue a contest that may end in its utter destruction. The history of Dr. Parker's warfare against the founder is familiar to you in all its successiA^e steps from the attempt to induce him to take a two years trip to Europe; the attempt to dismiss and to disgrace him; the indictment for arson; the dismissal of the patients and the closing of the Asylum—to the last move to starve out himself and family—each and all failures. But, setting aside these persecutions personally, the founder would wish to discuss their bearing upon the well being of the Asylum itself." After an extended discussion, Mr. Buggies gave as his opinion that no better opportunity than the present could offer for the friends of the Asylum to resign their trusteeships. " With its large revenue," said he, " and a HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 261 Joss of but two cents to its treasury, Avith not a dollar wasted by extravagance or incapacity on the part of the board, not a dollar diverted from its treasury by the professional services or traveling expenses of its trustees, a golden opportunity is provided for us to leave the Asy- lum under the most favorable circumstances. My opinion is that if Dr. Parker's fight is continued, it will destroy the Asylum, and disgrace every one connected with it." The founder afterwards called upon Mr. Beekman, and informed him that a resolution was passed by the board, December 19th, 1866, appointing himself and Mr. Danforth a committee of two to select three high minded and honorable men to pass on the account of the founder, their action on said account to be final. Mr. Beekman replied that he would do all he could to select the best men. The founder then stated in substance his conversa- tion with Air. Buggies. Mr. Beekman replied that Dr. Parker's conduct since he had been elected President of the Asylum, had been of a very strange character, and, if continued, it would destroy the Asylum. " Honorable men," he said, " would not be associated with him in the work if they knew the means he had employed in the indictment of the founder; that the only reason that a large number of trustees had remained in the board was the thought that by so doing they would be able to do right by the founder; but that if he should leave the board, these men will also leave, and their places will be filled by scheming politicians, whose only object will be to plunder its treasury, and become the willing tools of its President." The founder next saw Chancellor Walworth, Judge Mullin, Judge Doolittle and ex-Gov. Campbell, and they 262 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. all advised him to resign and to leave the Asylum. Chancellor Walworth remarked that as long as Dr. Parker wajs connected with the Institution, no one in his right senses would give or leave by legacy a single dollar to it. This prophesy of Chancellor Walworth proved true to the very letter; for during the twelve years that Dr. Parker remained its President, not a dol- lar was given or left by legacy to the Asylum. Previous to the meeting following that of Dec. 19, 1866, Mr. Beekman had selected tAvo builders of large experience, and Mr. Danforth, an ex-Judge of Schoharie county, to act as the three referees to make an estimate of the cost of the Asylum if done under contract, and to examine the founder's account with the Asylum. In Jan. 1867, the board of trustees held a long and protracted session of two days at the Exchange Hotel, Binghamton. Two of the referees chosen by Messrs. Beekman and Danforth were at this meeting, having come to Binghamton to make the estimate on the Asy- lum and to review the founder's account with it, but they were prevented by Dr. Parker from either examin- ing the accounts or making the estimate required, " the reason," Mr. Beekman stated to the trustees, " being that such an estimate would prove that the founder had saved, in building the Asylum, from three to four hun- dred thousand dollars, and that that would be too much to his credit." After the first meeting of the two days' session, Mr. Beekman stated to the founder, that Dr. Parker had re- pudiated the resolutions of Dr. Mott, passed by the board Dec. 10th, 1862, and that he would not settle the found- er's account on that basis, and would resist such settle- ment if attempted until the courts should decide it, and that that would be at the end'of a long and expensive HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 263 suit. Mr. Beekman, therefore advised the founder to settle upon a money basis, saying that Dr. Parker had stated that he would pay him—the founder—$35,000 to resign his trusteeship, but that not one dollar would be allowed him for his services in founding and build- ing the Asylum if he remained in the board. Under these circumstances the founder was forced to resign and leave the Asylum under protest. THE INDICTMENT. The action of the board of trustees, July 10, 1866, in re-instating the founder, showed conclusively to Dr. Parker that his plans for displacing him had totally failed, and that the old members of the board were not to be influenced by his statements. The next move by Dr. Parker and his friends was the sending of an agent to negotiate with Mr. Wade, an ex-patient of- the Asylum, to make a complaint before the grand jury of the United States District Court that the Superintendent had opened his letters wiiile a patient in said Asylum. Air. Wade declined to become a party to such a conspiracy. Another scheme was devised by which James Brown and Mr. McKiver were induced to go before the Grand Jury of Broome Co., and swear out an indict- ment for arson against the founder. This was done Sept. 20, 1866, and immediately telegraphed over the country. The founder, on his arrival from New York city, Avas arrested by Sheriff Martin, and bail was given by Air. William Harris for his appearance at court. Soon after, one of the oldest and most respected citizens of Binghamton, John Clapp, Esq., called upon Mr. Harris and told him he thought that he was running a risk in being a bondsman in such a case, and that in his opinion there was a chance of the indicted party skip- 264 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. ping to parts unknown. Mr. Clapp often expressed himself as convinced of the founder's guilt, and this conviction he entertained long after his acquittal. Mr. Clapp's conviction largely represented public opinion in Binghamton, and the thorough work of the ring in this direction is illustrated by the fact that even the wife of Judge Balcom, who subsequently tried the case, was thoroughly enlisted in the work of defaming the writer. This lady, meeting an old friend, the Be v. Air. Parker, of Troy, informed him that the man who built the Asy- lum had had it insured, and had received from the insurance companies $81,000, Avhich he had appropri- ated to his own use. One of the most active of the local trustees called upon the Bev. EdAvard Andrews, D. D., to win him over to Dr. Parker's side, and to innoculate him with his viewrs; but the Bev. Doctor's constitution was not one to absorb it, and hence he was not affected by this local contagion. After the trustee had described the founder as a bigamist, an embezzler, a thief, a liar, a man with- out religion, without a country, an outcast, Dr. Andrews replied, " The man wiiom you have thus maligned, came to Binghamton nine years ago, and said to the people of this town, that, if they would give to the New York State Inebriate Asylum two hundred and fifty acres of land, he would agree to build one of the most substantial and beautiful public edifices in the State, and establish an Asylum which would make the town of Binghamton famous throughout the civilized world. These promises and pledges of this much abused man have all been redeemed and sacredly performed." " It was my good fortune," continued Dr. Andrews, " to be born in the old town of Ipswich in the commonwealth of Massachusetts, where my early and happy years were HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 265 spent. Aly good father being a church-going man, it was his custom on every Lord's Day to gather his family at the old meeting house, and in one of those historic square peAvs of large sitting capacity, the grandparents, the aunts, the uncles and the mother of the founder of the NeAV York State Inebriate Asylum, together with my father and mother, my sisters, brother and myself,— all met and worshiped for years. His ancestors were among the very first settlers of Ipswich in 1634. Even the elm trees surrounding its common were planted in the latter part of the last century, at his grandfather's expense. In 1864, four sisters and a brother,—one the mother, and the others the aunts and uncle of the founder, met here in Binghamton on a visit to his mother and himself. It was my good fortune to meet these old friends once more ; they were the early play- mates of my sisters and myself. Sixty years had passed since we had last seen each other at the old meeting- house on the hill. Old Father Time had wrought strange but natural changes in the friends of my youth. From beautiful childhood they had passed on to a green old age. My knoAvledge of the founder's ancestry caused me to feel an intense interest in his work, and to watch with no common anxiety the growth of the Asy- lum. I have seen its foundations laid, and witnessed stone after stone placed in its walls, until I beheld each tower, buttress and turret capped and finished. This work will be a monument to its patient, faithful and untiring projector long after his slanderer's tongues have been silenced in the grave." This indictment for arson was held over the founder for more than a year, and during this time pamphlets were published, articles written and sent to newspapers throughout the country, and every appliance which 266 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. money could secure, or political chicanery devise, were invoked to prejudice public opinion against .the founder, and to secure his conviction. During the first visit of the Board of State Charities to the Asylum, one of the local trustees treated them to a description of the institution, and to a history of its founder. He was represented as a very wicked man, wrho had attempted the destruction of the Asylum by fire. "This very bad man," said he, "about whom no one knows very much, came to this country from Eng- land some twenty years ago, and he is one of those peculiar characters floating about and known as 'English adventurers.'" This account seemed to interest and amuse all of the distinguished gentlemen present with the exception of one, whom it seemed to annoy. As soon as this gen- tleman could secure attention, he said, "When a boy and attending the Bath Academy, the projector and founder of this Asylum (which we have so much admired) was a school-mate of mine and wTe were seated side by side for years."* Soon after the adjourned election day June 6th, 1867, Dr. Parker called upon a certain stockholder and solic- ited his proxy to be used at the adjourned election day, July 23d, 1867. Dr. Parker urged upon him the impor- tance of securing the election of his ticket, as Turner was a very bad man, a foreigner by birth, and that the election of his ticket would certainly destroy the Institu- tion. The stockholder listened attentively to Dr. Par- ker's statements, and then replied, "The founder of the Ncav York State Inebriate Asylum was, when a boy, a member of my Sabbath School, and his mother and his * For this account the founder is indebted to Dr. Hoyt, the Secretary of the State Board of Charities. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 267 nearest relatives were among my most active church members, and were my hospitable friends. Aly acquaint- ance of more than a third of a century with the projector of this Asylum, and my knowledge of his work-in plan- ning and organizing it, fully justified me in giving my proxy to him, and I must, under these circumstances, decline to revoke it in your favor." The trial of Dr. Gardner for arson (which had been held over his head for over a year) commenced on Sep- tember 30th, 1867, at the court-house of Broome County, Judge Balcom, of Binghamton, presiding.* The indictment was based upon the sworn testimony of James BroAvn, a colored employe of the Asylum, before the grand jury to the effect that he, Brown, had overheard a conversation, carried on in a usual tone of voice, between Drs. Turner and Gardner, in which said Turner had instructed said Gardner to burn down the Asylum, as the bonds of the institution had become due; during the said conversation they, Drs. Turner and Gard- ner being at the head of the basement stairs, and he, Brown, at the foot of said stairs. On the first morning of the trial Senators Kernan and Conkling visited the Asylum for the purpose of testino; whether a conversation, carried on in a usual tone of voice at the head of the basement stairs, could be heard by any one standing at the foot of the stairs. They made the test and satisfied themselves that it could not be done.f * After talking with a number of the citizens of Binghamton before the trial, Senator Kernan advised the founder to have the place of trial removed to some other county, as the public mind had been so prejudiced against him that itwould bedifHcult for him to have a fair trial in Binghamton. The founder replied that the indictment had been invented in New York and Binghamton, and that here it should be tried. t James Brown was at the Asylum when Senators Kernan and Conkling made the test, and he knew the result. 268 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. At the trial the colored man, James Brown, was called by the Court, and testified that he heard Turner tell Gardner to burn down the Asylum as the bonds had become due, and the Asylum would be sold out to satisfy the bond-holders; that he, BroAvn, was at the time stand- in or at the foot of the basement stairs, and Turner and Gardner were at the head of the stairs; that Turner screamed at the top of his voice, and, that, seeing him, Brown, during the whole of the conversation at the foot of the stairs, he, Turner, told him, at the close of it, to o-o about his business. The Court asked Brown if Dr. Turner had told him not to report the conversation heard between himself and Gardner. The witness answered that Dr. Turner had not spoken to him about it. The Court then asked why he, Brown, did not tell some one that the Asylum was to be fired with intent to destroy. He answered that no one asked him to tell. Air. McKiver, the plasterer, testified that he had found several barrels of shavings saturated with linseed oil in the north wing of the Asylum, and that Dr. Gardner discharged him on the afternoon of the fire. The defense proved that on the night of the fire, James Brown had stated to seven different men that Dr. Turner would be crazy w hen he learned of the fire; and that he also told these same men that a patient named Aloulton had threatened to burn the Asylum, and that he, Brown, believed that Moulton was the guilty party. The painter and his assistant who oiled the wood- work of the Asylum, testified that they had spilled a gallon and more of linseed oil on one of the floors of the Asylum, and had then taken shavings to wipe it up, and had. put them into barrels, and hidden them in the north wing of the Asylum, saying nothing to any one about it. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 269 Air. AlcKiver's assistant testified that on the after- noon of the fire Mr. McKiver was too drunk to work, and AATas discharged on that account. He also testified that he himself was employed in the Asylum on the afternoon of the fire. Mr. James L. Graham, President of the Metropolitan Insurance Company, testified that it was through his influence, that the founder procured $300,000 insurance upon the buildings of the Asylum. Mr. Richard Schell, a trustee of the Asylum, testified that he advised the founder to have $300,000 insured on the buildings, and said if it was not done he would resign his trusteeship. Senator Conkling summed up the case for the defense. Mr. Lewis Seymour, the lawTyer employed by the trustees, and paid from the funds of the Institution, summed up for Dr. Parker and the people. Judge Bal- com charged the jury that if they could believe James Brown, and disbelieve the seven witnesses who testified that Brown had stated to them on the nipdit of the fire that a patient named Moulton had threatened to burn down the building, and that he, Brown, believed the said patient had committed the deed, then they could convict the prisoner. The jury were absent from the court-room less than five minutes, and returned a verdict of "Not guilty." On the acquittal of Dr. Gardner, Judge Balcom quashed the indictment for arson against the founder. Drs. Willard Parker and Alfred C. Post were sum- moned to appear as witnesses for the defense, but were not called upon to testify. Dr. Post stated to the founder, after he had heard all the evidence in the case, that he regarded the indictment as part of a wicked conspiracy, and that had he known at the meeting of the board on 270 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. September 11th, 1866, what he then knew, he would not have been one of the trustees to vote for the resolution to close the Asylum; nor would he have offered the resolution dismissing the founder for refusing to make out his account against the Asylum; nor voted for Mr. Birdsall's resolution passed at the annual meeting of the board, June 6th, 1866, providing that the number of patients in the Asylum be not increased. " I was made," said he, "a cat's-paw by Mr. Birdsall and Dr. Parker. To draw me into this wicked work I was made to believe that the founder Avas a bad man, and that all means would seem to be justifiable in bringing about his dismissal." After the trial, Dr. Parker stated to several of the citizens of Binghamton that he had heard all the testi- mony in the case, and that he was still convinced that Turner was guilty of the crime of arson, although he was acquitted by the jury. The following resolution, passed by the board of trustees September 29th, 1864, shows that William R. Osborn was the only authorized person to collect and receipt for the insurance moneys: Pursuant to a call made by the corresponding secretary as authorized by a resolution passed at a previous meeting of the board of trustees of the Ncav York State Inebriate Asylum, the board of trustees held a meeting at the office of the Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson in Binghamton, on Tuesday, the 29th day of September, 1es" but his works will live, and honor will yet be paid him fully, by all av1io really study the welfare of that unfortunate class of men, whom the French call "alienated," whether by alcohol, or by Avhat is mistakenly called mental disease. Very truly your friend, JAMES AV. BEEKMAN. The writer would at this point introduce the last page of Dr. Parker's sworn statement to the Legislature, filed with the Secretary of State, and made Avithin two HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 279 months of the foregoing report of Hon. J. \AT. Beek- man, in evidence of the success of the Asylum under the management of its founder. [Doc. Assembly, No. 26—Page 9. 1867.] Another writes: "I have entirely abstained from touch- ing the accursed thing, and trust I may be kept from it forever." These extracts indicate, in some degree, the utility of the Asylum, andAvhat good it can accomplish. Let it be remem- bered that these were written by confirmed inebriates, upon whom the strongest influence of friends had been exerted in vain. Hope, in respect to them, had become well nigh extinct, and the advantages they might possibly secure by being placed in the Asylum were their last resort. The good that has been wrought there no doubt could be greatly increased; and what heart, desiring the restoration of the unfortunate and apparently hopelessly lost, will not lend its sympathies and its aid in placing this institution on a right and perma- nent foundation. It is a noble and necessary institution, second to no other in importance and usefulness. If but only those Avho have written the lines above were rescued from utter ruin, it would far outweigh in value all the cost of the erection of the building; but there is reason to believe that one-half of those who have been its inmates will be thus saved, and who can overestimate the value of this? If the professional man, of recognized ability; if the scholar, of ample culture and rich in the stores of knoAvledge; if the business man and mechanic, skilled in their calling; if others of high intelligence and of undoubted natural abilities, (and such have been the character of most of those who have been inmates of the Asylum,) can be saved from being engulfed in utter destruction, is it not a just and noble thing to make the effort to provide such a place and such appliances for them that their deteriorated constitutions and weakened minds can be strengthened and made whole by the hygienic and moral means which may be brought to bear upon them? Had such a place and such appliances been in existence in the years that are past, doubtless many a light, bright with genius and learning, adorning not only families and commu- 280 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. nities, but the State and the world, might have been saved from going out in dishonor, darkness and death. AATLLARD PARKER, M. D., President. William R. Osborn, Treasurer, Binghamton, Jan. 8, 1867. Subscribed and SAvorn to before me this f U. S. 1 8th day of January, 1867. \ 5 cents \ J. M. Johnson, Notary Public, [ R. S. J in and for Broome County, N. Y. [Doc. Assembly, No. 26, Page 13, 1867.] The Asylum during the short period in Avhich patients were received in it, and laboring under all the disadvantages incident to the commencement of an enterprise, to a great extent neAV in this country, receiA^ed from patients the sum of $41,465.64,* and during that time the expenditures were $41,984.69, the receipts exceeding the expenses by $876.85. There is included in these expenditures most of the furnishing of the Asylum, as far as the same is furnished, including car- pets, tables, chairs, hairmattrasses, linen, bedsteads, kitchen furniture, and table furniture, all of Avhich tends to demon- strate that Avhen the Institution shall be finished and fur- nished ready to receive patients, if properly managed Avith prudence and economy, it will be a self-sustaining institution. During the time patients were received into the Asylum there were six charity patients. Signed, PETER S. DANFORTH. JAMES AV. BEEKMAN. December 17th, 1866. ILLEGAL ELECTION SUIT. In the Supreme Court of the State of New York, First Judi- cial District. In the Matter of an Election of Trustees] of >Petition. The NeAV York State Inebriate Asylum.J To the Supreme Court of the State of New York: The petition of Noah AA^orrall, of the city and county of New York, respectfully shoAveth: * An amount of $1,396 due the Asylum from an estate Avas paid in the year 1867, and made the income exceed the expenses of the Hospital. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 281 That the Ncav York State Inebriate Asvlum is a corpora- tion, created under and by virtue of an Act of the Legisla- ture of the State of Ncav York, entitled, "an Act to amend an Act entitled, 'an Act to Incorporate the United States Inebriate Asylum for the Reformation of Poor and Destitute Inebriates,' passed April 15th, 1854, and the act amend- ing the same, passed April 23rd, 1855, and to change the name of this Institution," which first mentioned act was passed March 27, 1857. That the said corporation commenced its existence soon after the passage of said act, and has continued that exis- tence to the present time. That your petitioner was one of the original subscribers to the capital stock of said corpora- tion, and paid his subscription of one hundred dollars for ten shares, in pursuance of the provisions of said act; was one of the original corporators, and has been from the organization thereof to the present time a stockholder therein. That it is provided in and by Section 4 of an Act of the Legislature of the State of Ncav York, entitled "an Act for the Relief of the NeAV York State Inebriate Asylum, and for other purposes," passed March 21, 1861, that "the election of Trustees of the Ncav York State Inebriate Asylum shall be held on the first AVednesday in June of each year, at the office of the institution, at ten o'clock, a. m. The said trus- tees shall be elected by ballot, by plurality of subscribers present, or represented by proxy, each and every subscrip- tion of ten dollars paid having one vote; three fit and disin- terested persons shall be appointed by the Board of Trus- tees, three weeks previous to each election of trustees of said Asylum, inspectors of the next election." That a feAv days prior to the first AA^ednesday in June, 1867, your petitioner duly executed and delivered to Hum- phrey S. Anderson, Esq., a proxy duly authorizing him to cast the vote of your petitioner at an election of trustees, which was to have been held, and ought to have been held, at 10 o'clock A. m., of the first AVednesday of June aforesaid. That your petitioner is informed and believes that the said Anderson attended at the said institution on the said first AATednesday in June, at 10 o'clock, a. m., with said 282 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. proxy, and with the proxies of a large number of the other subscribers and stockholders, for the purpose of voting at the election so appointed bylaw to be held at that time; that the said Anderson then and there found three persons claim- ing to be Inspectors of Election, appointed by the Board of Trustees, whose names are John G. Orton, George Burr and Samuel AV. Bush; that neither of said persons was a fit or disinterested person, as required by said act, but on the contrary, the said Bush was then an employee of said cor- poration, the said Burr was then a stockholder therein, and all three of said inspectors so far from being disinterested, were in entire sympathy with a party of stockholders, who were represented by one Ausburn Birdsall a,nd were seeking to secure the election of a certain ticket, and preventing the election of the ticket Avhose success Avas sought to be accom- plished by your petitioner and other subscribers and stock- holders ; that said Anderson then and there offered to vote on the shares for which he had proxies as aforesaid, but the said inspectors refused to receive his Azotes or to hold any election unless the said Anderson Avould state how many proxies he had, and Avhom he proposed to vote for; that on said Anderson refusing to so state, a pretended meeting of the stockholders present Avas then and there organized, although no such meeting had ever been called, and no such meeting is authorized by law; that said meeting was com- posed almost entirely of residents of Binghamton, and friends of the ticket opposed by your petitioner; that all the votes at such meeting were given viva voce, and per capita, so that each person present cast one vote, without reference to the number of shares he held, and no stockholder Avho Avas represented by election proxy, and not present in person Avas alloAved to vote; that a vote was passed by said meeting that the election of trustees be postponed to the 21st day of June, 1867, at 12 o'clock, noon; that said Anderson then and there protested against any such ad- journment, and insisted that the said election should be at once proceeded with, but the said inspectors refused to pro- ceed with such election, and left the room; that said Ander- son then and there, in a loud voice, and in the hearing of all persons in the room, offered his proxies for examination, HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 283 and tickets having printed thereon the names of the candi- dates for Avhom he had been instructed to vote, and offered to vote for trustees of said corporation, but no person would receive his votes, although no person challenged or questioned his right to vote. That your petitioner is informed and believes, that on the said 21st day of June, 1867, at twelve o'clock noon, the said Anderson again attended with proxies at the said insti- tution, and that then and there proceedings, similar to those which had taken place on the first AVednesday in June, were had. The said inspectors attended as before, but refused to hold an election. A pretended meeting of the stockholders Avas again held, and a pretended adjournment of the election was again made to the 23rd day of July, 1867, at twelve o'clock noon: that on the said 23rd day of July, 1867, at tAvehe o'clock noon, said Anderson again attended at the same place. That the said inspectors proceeded to hold a pretended election, and to receive votes for trustees. That said Anderson, after voting on a portion of the proxies in his hands, found that the books of the said corporation had been tampered with; that names of the stockholders for Avhom he held proxies had been erased, and other names entered, so that it was impossible to tell from the books who Avere entitled to vote and who aa ere not. That he called to his aid Dr. T.Jefferson Gardner, who, as Registrar of the cor- poration, had made up the stock books; but the said Gard- ner declared that, in consequence of the alterations made in the books, he could not, Avithout spending a great deal of time, tell who were entitled to vote. That Avhile the pre- tended election was in progress, people were being brought in omnibusses from the city of Binghamton to vote; and said Birdsall sat at the table with the inspectors, and was constantly engaged in entering names in said books; and the people so brought, having their names so entered, were alloAved by said inspectors to vote. That said Anderson challenged many of said votes; but the said inspectors. nevertheless, allowed them to vote, and at the same time refused to receive the greater part of the votes duly offered by said Anderson, on the authority of proxies given him by stockholders, who were, in fact, entitled to vote at a regular 284 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. election of trustees. That said Anderson then and there protested against the said unlawful proceedings of said inspectors. That, thereafter, the ticket Avhich was voted by the said Birdsall, and others associated with him, in oppo- sition to the ticket Avhich your petitioner, and others avIio had given their proxies to the said Anderson, sought to have elected, was declared by said inspectors to be elected, and the folloAving persons, whose names were on said ticket which was declared to be elected, to wit: AV. Parker, H. R. Pier- son, J. Conkling, J. P. H. Tallman, S. M. Weed, H. AV. Rog- ers, H. A. Foster, A. Munroe, P. S. Danforth, H. S. Griswold, A. Bennett, R. Mather, AV. R. Osborn, C. AV. Sanford, AV. P. Pope, A. Birdsall, and 24 others, were by said inspectors declared to be the trustees of said corporation; and that from that time to the present, those of the persons whose names Avere on said ticket, who are in connivance with said Birdsall, have acted as the Board of Trustees of said cor- poration, and no person other than those whose names were on said ticket have been in any way recognized as trustees of said corporation. That your petitioner is informed and believes, that the said unlawful and irregular proceedings were carried through by residents of Binghamton, led by said Ausburn Birdsall, and aided and abetted by Williard Parker and Peter S. Dan- forth; that their object was to get and keep control of the large amounts of money which the said institution receives from the County Treasurers of the several counties of this State, out of the moneys received by them from the several Boards of Commissioners of Excise, and to expend the same in such manner that they may derive personal profit therefrom; and that during the last year, as appears from the books of said institution, there has been paid from the treasury of said corporation to the said Ausburn Birdsall the sum of $2,500, and to Peter S. Danforth the further sum of $2,500, for expenses to Albany to procure legislation in regard to said Asylum, in the session of 1867, and that the said Bird- sall charges and receives the sum of $2,500 as an annual salary, as Vice-President of said corporation. And as evidence of the correctness of his information and belief, your petitioner respectfully begs leave to refer to the affidavits and other papers hereto annexed. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 285 Your petitioner, therefore, prays that this court will declare said pretended election, held on the 23d day of July, 1867, null and void; that it will restrain, by injunction, the said AV. Parker, H. R. Pierson, J. Conkling, J. P. H. Tallman, S. M. AA^eed, H. AV. Rogers, H. A. Foster, A. Munroe, P. S. Danforth, H. S. GrisAvold, A. Bennett, R. Mather, AAr. R. Osborn, C. AAr. Sanford, AV. P. Pope, A. Birdsall, and 24 oth- ers, from acting as trustees or officers of said corporation, or in any manner interfering with its affairs; that it will order the books and papers of said corporation to be produced before a referee, to be appointed by this court, with sufficient poAver to ascertain what persons were entitled to vote for trustees on the first AA^ednesday of June, 1807; and that this court Avill order an election for trustees, to be held at such time and place as this court may appoint, and under the direction of inspectors to be appointed by the court, with specific directions from the court as to what persons shall be allowed to vote, and that the persons who shall be so elected be declared and adjudged to be the trustees of said corpora- tion, to hold office till the«first A\Tednesday of June, 1868. And your petitioner will ever pray, &c. NOAH WORRALL. Barrett & Brinsmade, Attorneys for Petitioner. State of NeAV York, ) City and County of New York,)'' ' On this 4th day of February, 1868, before me personally came Noah AA^orrall, the petitioner above named, who being by me duly SAvorn, says that he has read the above petition and knoAVS the contents thereof, and that the same are true of his OAvn knoAvledge, except as to the matters therein stated upon information and belief, and as to those matters he believes them to be true. NOAH AVORRALL. SAvorn to before me this 4th day of February, 1868. John J. Thomasson, Notary Public, New York County. State of NeAV York, \ City and County of New York, / Humphrey S. Anderson, Counselor at Law, in said city, being duly SAvorn, says: 286 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. That he was requested by a number of the stockholders of the NeAV York State Inebriate Asylum, among others Noah AVorrall, of said city, to attend the annual election of trustees of said asylum, Avhich Avas notified to be held at the office of the asylum, in Binghamton, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, on the first AA'ednesday of June last, and vote at said election as their proxy. J That he attended at said Asylum, at said time, for said purpose, having with him the authority to vote as proxy at said election upon upAvards of thirteen hundred shares of the stock of said Asylum, one of Avhich proxies belonged to said AVorrall, but no election of trustees was then held. That there Avere present at said time in the office of the Asylum about tAventy or thirty persons, betAveen whom a general conversation went on till about half past ten o'clock, but up to that time no movement towards the election of trustees was made. That about that time, it having become known that deponent was there for the purpose of attending the election of trustees, and voting as proxy at the same, a series of side consultations, of which deponent and his purposes Avere the subject, commenced among the officials there present, and several times he was made a party to those consultations, and his intentions and purposes were inquired about. That to all questions as to his purposes, deponent's answer avas simply that heAvas there to attend the election of trustees, which was announced to be held that morning; that he was several times asked to disclose for whom he expected to vote, but he declined to do so until the election was opened, saving that as soon as the election was opened he would deposit his votes, and then they could see for themselves for whom he had voted. That about eleven o'clock a meeting of stockholders, of which no notice had ever been given, to the knoAvledge of this deponent (the stockholders then present holding that the notice of the election was a sufficient notice for a meeting of stockholders), was organized by the election, by acclamation, of John Conkling, of Port Jervis, as Chairman, and P. S. Danforth as Secretary. That thereupon Mr. Ausburn Birds- all arose and stated that that was the time for the annual HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 287 election of trustees, and that they had come together to hold such election, but to their surprise they found a gentleman (meaning deponent) present, for the purpose of votingat the election as proxy, and he therefore moved that a recess be taken for consultation as to the election, and the motion was seconded. That although in a meeting of stockholders, deponent really had no place or right (his power being confined to the mere voting at the election), he arose and opposed a recess for any such purpose, and protested against the stockholders holding any meeting or taking any combined action there for the purpose of controlling or regulating the election, or con- trolling or influencing the officers, to whom the poAver of con- ducting the election has been delegated, maintaining that the stockholders had nothing to do Avith the election for trustees, except to cast their votes, and that the election, according to the laAvs of the State, as well as by the charter and laAvs of the Asylum, should be regulated and controlled by the prop- erty appointed inspectors of elections, and by no one else. But the recess was taken, and after consultations had been had, to which deponent Avas not a. party, the meeting of stockholders was called to order, and Mr. Birdsall moved that the election of trustees be postponed for tAvo weeks from that day. The motion being seconded, deponent again objected to any such action, on the ground that there was no authority anywhere to postpone the election ; that the char- ter, under which the Asylum Avas organized, required the election to be held at ten o'clock in the forenoon of the first AVednesday of June in each year, at the same time providing that, if the election for any reason failed, then it must be held Avithin tAvelve months after said day ;* that it provided for a failure of the election, but not for any deliberate postpone- ment of it by any one, and, least of all by the stockholders Avho happened to be present in person, or by the party in office, for the purpose of retaining their office; that that, or any meeting of stockholders, so far as it attempted to post- * The amended charter repealed this clause of the charter, which pro- vided for an adjournment of the election twelve months after the former elec- tion. 288 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. pone or in any way control or regulate the election of trustees, or to influence the conduct of the inspectors of such election Avas irregular and unlaAvful, and its acts void, effecting nothing, and binding no one, and that he could not consider himself bound by it in any respect; that the election was under the sole control of the three inspectors of election whose duty it Avas, before opening the election, to be SAvorn accord- ing to laAV, and then to receive the votes of stockholders; and Avhen all the votes were cast, to certify the result of the election; and deponent then notified the inspectors of thesaid election, who were then present at that meeting, that as soon as that meeting adjourned he would ask that the said inspect- ors be sworn according to law, and that he would offer his proxies for their inspection, and endeavor to cast the votes which the proxies authorized him to cast; that thereupon the motion for postponement Avas amended by inserting Fri- day, the 21st day of June then instant, at 12 o'clock, as the time for the election to be held, and so as to provide that a neAV notice of the election be published for two weeks previous thereto, and then the motion was put and declared carried, and the meeting of stockholders adjourned; that deponent then called for the inspectors of the election, that they might be SAvorn, and that he might cast the votes which he was authorized to cast, but he was informed that they had left the room; that he then called for their names, but could get no reply (he has, hoAvever, since learned that they were George Burr, Samuel Bush, and John G. Orton); that he thereupon produced a proxy by which he was authorized to cast ten votes, and laid it, together with ten ballots, upon the table, and called upon the persons present to Avitness, that he was there ready and desirous to vote for trustees for the then ensuing year. That no inspectors offered to receive his ballots or to inspect his proxy, although Mr. Charles AV. Sanford, a trus- tee in said Asylum, of Binghamton, then said to him, that, if those Avere all the votes he could cast he would call the inspectors back, and would have the election ; that in reply, deponent said to him, that no matter what the result of the election might be, he was desirous that it should then be held, and, if they would only proceed Avith it, he was quite HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 289 Avilling to take the risk of losing it, and of letting them Avin it, if they lawfully could, and deponent thereupon vvithdreAV from the Asylum. Deponent further says, that, at twelve o'clock on the twenty-first day of said month of June, he again attended at said asylum, authorized to vote as proxy at the election of trustees, which Avas notified for said time, on the same thirteen hundred shares of stock and upwards above mentioned. That he Avas then accompanied by Charles Jones, Esq., of NeAV York, who also held a proxy authorizing him to vote at said election, that, at that hour he found the office of the Asylum full of people; Avhether they Avere stockholders or not, or for Avhat purpose they Avere there, deponent does not knoAv. That at about tAvelve o'clock, Dr. Conkling arose, and, as president of the adjourned meeting of stockholders, called the meeting of stockholders to order; Avhereupon Mr. Bird- sall arose and stated, that since the former meeting of stock- holders, they had obtained proxies enough, he had no doubt, to carry the election, but in order to make the matter sure, he moved that the election of trustees be postponed one month, and that it be held on the tAventy-third day of July then next folloAving. That the said motion being seconded, Mr. Jones arose and strongly opposed any adjournment of the election, on the ground that the stockholders had no poAver to adjourn it, that stockholders having been notified that the election Avas to be held there that morning, Avere present by proxy, ready to take part in the same, and no one had authority to adjourn it. That Mr. Birdsall replied to Mr. Jones, taking the ground that the stockholders were the supreme poAver, that they managed and controlled the institution and all its affairs, and they could hold the election whenever they pleased, and could postpone it as often as they pleased. That the stockholders, Avho were present in person, could and would do as they saw fit in the matter. That deponent then arose, and quoting from the charter of the Asylum, attempted to shoAv that the stockholders had no direct controlling power over the institution or its affairs, that although they were the source of poAver, yet the 19 290 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. moment they elected trustees, they delegated their poAver to the trustees by Avhom, according to the charter of the Asy- lum, all the affairs and concerns of the asylum were to be managed; that the trustees, in turn, were in duty bound to appoint, by ballot annually, three fit and disinterested per- sons inspectors of the then next election of trustees, and that immediately upon such appointment, the trustees Avere divested of all control and regulation of said election, and such control and regulation vested in the inspectors of elec- tion, and neither the trustees, stockholders, nor any one else had any right to postpone the election, and no one but the inspectors had any right to regulate it, or in any way inter- fere with it. That deponent also attempted to show how a few local stockholders could thwart the wishes and plans of the great body of non-resident stockholders if it were once conceded that stockholders, by vote, in such informal meet- ings of Avhich no notice whatever had been given, could stay or postpone such elections, to which the said Birdsall replied, that stockholders must attend elections in person, if they wanted to protect themselves, and that they intended to postpone this election just as often as they thought it neces- sary to do so. That a lively discussion was kept up for some time, and then the motion to adjourn the election was put and declared carried. That deponent then, as at the first attempted election, went forAvard and called for the inspectors of election, and placed one of his proxies, with the proper number of votes upon the table; but the inspectors Avere noAvhere to be found, and thus ended the second attempt at an election of trustees. Deponent further says, that at twelve o'clock noon, on the 23rd day of July last, deponent again attended at said asylum, authorized to vote as proxy on about fifteen hun- dred shares of stock, at the election of trustees of said Asy- lum which had been notified for said time; that he was then accompanied by Dr. Gardner, a stockholder of the Asylum; that, after waiting until about one o'clock, p. m., Mr. Bird- sall arrived, and for a considerable time busied himself in filling up proxies which had been executed in blank, and in the presence of the inspectors of the election, being the same HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 291 persons who had appeared as such on the first AVednesday of June, and the assembled stockholders, in vAilting names in the stock book. That soon aftenvards proceedings Avere commenced by calling to order the adjourned meeting of stockholders, and by a motion to proceed with the election. That deponent again mane the same objections as upon the two prior occasions, that the election could not lawfully be held within a meeting of stockholders; that it was the intention of the Legislature that the election should be a free, fair election, in the hands and control of three fit and disinterested inspectors; but no such free, fair election could be had or could be expected, if the election were held within a meeting of local stockholders, who by their actions assumed to control the election, and to control the inspectors of the election, and even to say whether the election should or should not be held; that the three fit and disinterested inspectors should be allowed to conduct the election, under their oaths, in a fit and disinterested way, without any out- side influence, and that he protested, in the name of the stockholders whom he represented, against the election being held under the control or direction of that meeting. That the motion to proceed to the election was, hoAvever, put and declared carried. That the said John Gray Orton, George Burr, and Samuel AA\ Bush, then subscribed an oath as inspectors, substantially, though not technically agreeing with the oath which inspectors of elections of corporations are by law required to subscribe; that thereupon, in the names of the stockholders whom he represented, this depo- nent objected to their acting as inspectors for the following reasons: 1st. Because they had not been duly qualified as such inspectors, by taking and subscribing the oath by law required. 2d. Because they Avere not three fit and disinterested persons in respect to said election; for— 1. They were appointed inspectors of the election of trustees of said Asylum, duly notified to be held, and by law required to be held, on the first AATednesday of June last, and on said day they refused to qualify as such inspectors, and to 292 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. receive the votes of stockholders who were then present and offered to vote at such election. 2. They were appointed inspectors of the election of trustees, duly notified to be held on the 21st day of June last, and on said day they refused to qualify as such inspectors, and to receive the votes of stockholders avIio Avere then pres- ent, and offered to vote at such election. 3. Samuel AAr. Bush, one of their number, Avas then in the employment of the present Board of Trustees, upon pay, and his term of office, as Avell as theirs, depended upon the result of that election. He was therefore directly interested in the result therof. 4. George Burr, one of their number, Avas a stockholder of the Asylum, and as such was directly interested in the result of that election. That the inspectors thereupon announced themselves ready to secure votes, and to proceed with the election, say- ing that thev would first receiATe the votes of stockholders who were present in person, and thereupon those persons went forward and offered their votes. Not being acquainted with them, and having no means of knoAving, except by the stock-book, whether or not the persons who offered to vote were stockholders in fact, deponent questioned the right of each stockholder to vTote as he offered his vote. That at the outset the inspectors allowed several persons to vote without paying much attention to deponent's chal- lenges, but upon deponent's reading to them the sections of the Revised Statutes, Avhich authorized him to question each vote, and directed them upon such question being raised, to require the transfer book of the corporation as evidence of stock held in said corporation, they had the book produced, and thereafter, when the right to vote was questioned, the transfer bookAvas produced as evidence of such right, though votes were not in every instance allowed or rejected, accord- ing as the name of the voter appeared or did not appear in the transfer book. That in several instances, when persons offered their votes, and their right to vote was questioned by deponent, and the transfer book was examined as evidence of such right, though the names of the persons did not appear on the transfer book, HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 293 yet their votes were received by the inspectors; Mr. Birdsall having taken the liberty, notwithstanding deponent's objec- tion, of Avriting the names of those persons in the transfer book in the very presence of the inspectors of election, and while the election was going on. Deponent took the ground that no person had a right to vote at that election, except those persons Avho had the right to vote on the first AVednes- day of June, the day when the election should have been held, and that everybody who had on the first AVednesday of June a right to vote, had the same right to vote whenever the election was actually held. That the election ought to have been held on the first AVednesday of June, and though it was being held on the 23d day of July, yet in theory and in laAV, it Avas being held nunc pro tunc, as of the first AA'ednesday of June. The inspectors, on the other hand, acted in all respects as if the 23d day of July were the day upon which the election Avas by laAV required to be held, and as if the first AVednesday of June and the status of matters on that day could not affect the right of any one to vote on the 23d day of July. That the voting went on, but soon the novelty of the voting and of the challenging Avore off, and the election there- after proceeded quietly, Avithout interruption or intermission (excepting a feAv minutes for lunch, about two o'clock), till nearly seven o'clock in the evening, and it Avas then sus- pended till nine o'clock on the following morning; that it was then recommenced, and with a short intermission for lunch, it was continued till its close at about five o'clock in the evening; that when deponent attempted to vTote as proxy for the J. L. Mott Iron AA^orks, a corporation that OAvned one hundred and twenty shares of the stock of the asylum, as deponent had been informed, he was surprised to learn that their name did not appear in the stock-book at all; that deponent's vote for them was rejected on that account, although it seemed to be Avell knoAvn to the officials then present that the J. L. Mott Iron AATorks were actually the OAvners of one hundred and twenty shares of said stock, and that it was by error of some sort that it did not so appear on the stock-book. That when he offered the vote of The Union Steam and AArater Heating Company, the vote was rejected on the ground that their name had been erased 294 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. from the stock-book by order of the trustees; that on exam- ination of the stock-book deponent found their name erased, and by the records of the meeting of the trustees, held on the 21st day of June, 1867, he found that on that day the vote was passed to erase said name from the stock-book for the reason, as alleged, that it had been entered in said book erroneously. That deponent pressed the vote on the ground that the name was there on the first AA^ednesday of June Avhen the election should have been held ; that they then had a right to vote, the stock-book being the evidence thereof, and that such right could not be affected by any action taken by the trustees, especially if taken after said day. To which Dr. Burr, one of the inspectors, simply said, "that he Avas present at the meeting of trustees when the name of The Union Steam and AA^ater Heating Company Avas ordered to be erased from the stock-book, and he kneAV that it was erased, and therefore the vote Avould not be received, "that several other votes that were offered by deponent were rejected by the inspectors on grounds that to him seemed wholly untenable and unjust, but there was no appeal from their decision. That there were but two tickets voted at the election, and of these Dr. AAillard Parker and Ausburn Bird- sail, who Avere the active and leading spirits of the party on all the above mentioned occasions, voted the ticket which was declared successful. And deponent further says, that during the progress of the election, no votes which were offered by him, and were objected to by his opponents, Avere received by the inspectors, except in one or two instances in which his opponents AvithdreAv their objections; while on the other hand no votes, which were offered by his opponents, and objected to by him, were rejected by the inspectors, though a few which had been offered by his opponents, and objected to by him, were, at the suggestion of the inspectors themselves, AvithdraAvn by his opponents, the general re- mark being made, that they were not needed, and it would be better to withdraw them. Deponent further says, that immediately after the result of the election was announced, the neAvly elected trustees organized a meeting of trustees, and he withdrew. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 295 Deponent further says, that the persons Avhose names were on the Parker and Birdsall ticket, and Avho were de- clared by said inspectors to have been elected trustees, are as follows:' Dr. AV. Parker, H. R. Pierson, H. AV. Beecher, A. C. Post, J. AAT. Beekman, J. Linsley, 0. D. Saa an, R. Schell, C. P. Kirkland, H. AA\ Rogers, AV. C. Pierrepont, B. N. Hunting- ton, H. A. Foster, A. Munroe, S. M. Richmond, P. S. Dan- forth, E. N. Frisbee, A. S. Upham, AV. N. Sage, H. Foster, G. U. Boardman, B. F. Manierre, G. Kemble, J. Conkling, J. P. H. Tallman, T. C. Brinsmade, I. Harris, T. Cornell, S. M. AAreed, C. H. Piatt, H. S. Griswold, A. Bennett, R. Mather, AV. R. Osborn, C. AV. Sanford, AV. P. Pope, A. Birdsall. And that the names of the persons for whom this depo- nent offered to vote are as fblloAVS: Ex-President of the United States, Millard Fillmore, Ex- Chancellor Reuben H. AATahvorth, Ex-Judge Henry R. Selden, Judge Charles H. Doolittle, Judge Joseph Mullin, Judge Charles P. Daly, Ex-Judge AVilliam T. McCoun, Prof. Ros- well D. Hitchcock, D. D., Henry AV. Bellows, D. D., George B. Cheever, D. D., Stephen H. Tyng, D. D., EdAvard H. Chapin, D. D., George S. Hare, D. D.,E. Guernsey, M. D., L. T. War- ner, M.D., E.Lovejoy, M. D., J. N. North, M. D., H. D. Paine, M. D., AV. A. M. Culbert, M. D., E. Bayard, M. D., Peter Coo- per, Ex-Lieu ten ant-Governor Robert Campbell, James AV. Beekman, President of New York AVoman's Hospital, and Aice-President of Ncav York City Hospital, John A. GrisAvold, M. C, Noah AA"orrall, Thomas AV. Olcott, Samuel B. Ruggles, G. AV. Sterling, F. Johnson, E. A. Lambert Josiah B. AVill- iams, G. J. Pumpelly, John Hecker, J. Stanton Gould, E. F. Shannard, A. C. Hull, M. D., AV.C. Palmer, M. D, R. B. Lock- wood, Sherman D.Phelps, Ex-Mayor of Binghamton, Charles McKinney, Ex-Mayor of Binghamton. SAvorn to before me this 31st day of December, 1867. H. S. ANDERSON. John J. Thomassox, Notary Public, New York County. SUPREME COURT. In the Matter of an Election of Trustees] of \ The New York State Inebriate Asylum.J County of AVestchester, ss : Jordan L. Mott, being duly sworn, says, that he is treas- 296 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. urer of the corporation, knoAvn as the "J. L. Mott Iron AArorks," that said corporation, by virtue of its payments to the capital stock of the NeAV York State Inebriate Asylum, is a stockholder therein, and has been recognized as such from the----day of-----and deponent never heard that any one questioned the fact that said works was such stockholder till the 23d day of July last. Deponent further says, that a short time prior to the twenty-first day of June, 1867, a person, on behalf of Dr. AVillard Parker, called on deponent and requested him to give said Parker the proxy of said Avorks to vote at the then coming election; that deponent believing that the board of trustees, whose term of office Avas about to expire, had left the entire management of said institution to said Parker and such of their number as resided at Binghamton, and that the affairs of the institution had been conducted Avith reference to the interests of certain residents of Binghamton, rather than to the best good of the institution, and that a change in the board was desirable, declined to give said Par- ker such proxy, but did, by authority of the J. L. Mott Iron AATorks, give such proxy to Humphrey S. Anderson; that at some time, betAveen the 21st of June and the 23rd day of July, said Parker's agent again called on deponent and urged him strongly to give him, said Parker, a proxy to vote at an adjourned election, but deponent declined to do so. Deponent further says, that on the return of said Ander- son from the pretended election of the 23rd of July, he learned Avith astonishment that the name of the "J. L. Mott Iron AATorks "had been erased from the stock-books; but deponent says, that neither the stock held by said Avorks nor its interest in said institution, by virtue of its contribu- tion to its capital stock, has ever been surrendered or assigned, and that deponent knows of no cause, whatever, for the erasement of the name of said works from said stock- books, except his declining to give a proxy to Willard Par- ker and giving such proxy to Humphrey S. Anderson. Deponent further says, that about the 10th day of July, 1867, he received by mail the printed circular which is hereto annexed. JORDAN L. MOTT. Sworn to before me this 5th day of February, 1868 John L. Bennett, Justice of the Peace. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 297 NeAV York State Inebriate Asylum, Binghamton, June 5th, 1867. " Dear Sir:—An election of trustees of the Ncav York State Inebriate Asylum will be held at the office of the Institution on the 21st inst, at 12 m. As a subscriber to its funds you are entitled to vote at such election. "Unavoidable differences arose during the past year in regard to the management of the Asylum, Avhich resulted in a settlement with Dr. Turner, in January last, upon the express agreement that his connection with the institution should permanently cease. HeAvas liberally paid for all that he had done from the commencement of his labors—he resigned his office of Trustee, and as Corresponding Secretary —transferred all his interests to the Treasurer for the benefit of the Asylum, and left the institution to reside in Connecti- cut, on the 15th of February last. "The Asylum Avhich had been closed since the first of October last, Avas re-opened on the 1st of May, under the superintendency of Dr. Albert Day, late of the AVashington- ian Home in Boston, Avell knoAvn throughout the country for his eminent success in the treatment of inebriates at the 'Home.' It is rapidly filling up with patients, and every- thing promises the most beneficient results. The buildings are being completed, and it is confidently believed that the most sanguine hopes of its friends will be more than realized if the present fortunate state of things is permitted to continue. "No disturbing element has appeared since Dr. Turner left, until the annual meeting of subscribers for the election of Trustees, Avhich assembled this morning,—a limited num- ber being present,—when a secret movement 'cropped out,' which sought to control the election by proxies, the extent of which could not be ascertained, as the stranger, avIio appeared as the proxy, refused to make any disclosure as to the parties he represented, or the purposes they had in view, or the number of votes he held. It was therefore deemed prudent to adjourn the election until the 21st instant, that effectual measures might be taken to protect the institution from falling into unfriendly hands, whose purposes and objects are unknown. 298 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. "We confidently ask you to co-operate with us in this Avork, by sending us your proxy. We enclose one already prepared with a return enATelope, properly directed, and post- age paid. Will you please execute it in presence of a sub- scribing Avitness, and return to Mr. Birdsall immediately? There are over 3,000 subscribers scattered throughout the State. AATe desire to secure a majority of these votes. This Ave cannot do unless we receive prompt responses. Be pleased to answer by return mail. " \7ery respectfully and truly yours, "WILLARD PARKER, M.D., New York,'President, "AUSBURN BIRDSALL, Binghamton, Yice-Prest. "P. S.—The election was postponed to the 23rd of July, to obtain a more general expression from subscribers." SUPREME COURT. In the Matter of an Election of Trustees! of [ The New York State Inebriate Asylum. J County of Broome, ss. Thaddeus A. Kingsley being duly SAvorn, says: That he was head carpenter in the employ of the said asylum for about five years; that in the month of June last, and while he was in such employ, Mr. AAilliam P. Pope, one of the gentlemen who was declared to be elected as a trustee of said institution, on the 23rd of July last, requested him, said deponent, to subscribe ten dollars to the capital stock of said institution, so that he might become a stockholder and attend a meeting of stockholders on the 21st day of June, and vote to adjourn the election, which object for his subscription was so stated at the time he was so requested to subscribe; that the said Pope is a resident of Bingham- ton; that deponent did subscribe as he was requested; that a large number of stockholders Avere made through the exer- tions of the local trustees, and they were taken, on the said 21st of June, in omnibusses. from the village of Bingham- ton to the asylum, and formed the great body of the "stock- holders," by whom the meeting of the 21st of June was held. THADDEUS A. KINGSLEY. SAvorn to before me, this 24th day of Dec, 1867. B. R, Johnson, Notary Public. HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 299 N. Y. SUPREME COURT. Iii the Matter of the Election of Trustees] of The Ncav York State Inebriate Asylum. J City and County of Ncav Y^ork, ss: David S. Smith, being duly SAvorn, says, that he resides in the city of Ncav York; that during the whole of the months of May and June, 1867, deponent was a clerk in the employ of H. B. Smith & Co., who were at that time, and noAv are the agents for, and occupy the same offices with, the Union Steam and AVater Heating Company; that deponent is acquainted with Dr. AAillard Parker, of said city; that sometime betAveen the 27th day of May, 1867, and the 5th day of June, 1867, deponent being then in charge of the said office, the said Dr. AAillard Parker called there, and inquired of deponent if any of the officers of the said Union Steam and AVater Heating Company were in, deponent replied that none of them were in. The said Parker then inquired of deponent the name of any officer of said Company, who could be found at that office, and Avho had authority to sign proxies for the Company. Deponent replied that Thomas F. Brinsmade Avas such an officer. The said Parker then in- formed deponent that he desired to obtain for himself the proxies of the said company, to be used on the coming elec- tion of trustees of the N. Y. Inebriate Asylum. Deponent further says, that between the 5th day of June and the 21st day of June, 1867, the said Dr. AAillard Parker called at the said office a second time, and not finding Mr. Brinsmade in, deponent referred said Parker to Mr. H. B. Smith, avIio was then present The deponent overheard the conversation between the said Parker and Smith; that Dr. Parker told Mr. Smith that he, Parker, had called to obtain proxies from the Union Steam and AA^ater Heating Company to enable him, Parker, to vote upon the stock of said company at the then approaching election of trustees of the N. Y. State Inebriate Asylum; that Smith referred said Parker to Air. Brinsmade. DAVID S. SMITH. Sworn to before me, this 5th day of Feb., 1868. Amasa A. Redfield, Notary Public, Ncav York County. 300 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. EXHIUIT 10.—SUPREME court. In the Matter of the NeAV York State\ Inebriate Asylum. / CARnozo, J.—"It is manifest that the adjournment of the election from the charter day was a manoeuver to enable those Avho had control of the institution to obtain time to procure sufficient votes to overcome the opposition, at which they were surprised, and thus to retain their power. That a majority of the voters on the charter day favored a change of the Board of Trustees was not good cause for an adjourn- ment, and the adjournment was a method of manipulating the election for the purpose of retaining control of the insti- tution, which is deserving of the severest censure. But Avhether the adjournment was merely an irregularity, as I am inclined to think, or a void act, is not material, because the omission to hold the election on the charter day, ' from any cause,' does not dissolve this Corporation. An election is to be had within the year upon due notice. Such election has been had. The statute* applicable to this Corporation does not require, or indeed permit, the notice to be given for two weeks, thirty days before the election, but provides that it shall be given for tAvo Aveeks immediately preceding the elec- tion. Notwithstanding that upon all the affidavits before me, I must conclude that different rulings of the Inspectors, as to the votes received and rejected, would not have altered the result. I think it very likely that I should, under all the circumstances attending the election, have felt that right and justice demanded a neAV ballot, so as to see whether, when the stockholders fully understood the manceuvers by Avhich the Board had been retained, they would continue their confidence in the present management, but that the regular annual elec- tion is so close at hand, that an early opportunity, without the interference of the courts, will arise to enable the stock- holders to ascertain the real merits of the matter, and to do what they may think right and best for the institution. For this reason I refuse to interfere. I cannot in this proceeding, * The law which Judge Cardozo quotes to sustain the legality of this adjournment of the charter day Avas repealed in the amended charter passed April loth, 1859, and also the amended charter passed March 21st, 1861. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 301 as the Counsel for the petitioner desired me to, determine Avho are entitled to have their names on the stock book as voters at the next election. " If any person feels aggrieved by the erasure or omission of his name, he must in due time seek his remedy by manda- mus. The prayer of the Petitioner is denied without costs." An Act for the Relief of the NeAV York State Inebriate Asylum and for other Purposes. Passed March 21st, 1861. "Section 4th of this act provides that the election of Trustees of the New York State Inebriate Asylum shall be held on the first AVednesday in June of each year, at the office of the Institution, at ten o'clock a. m. The said Trustees shall be elected by ballot, by plurality of subscribers present, or represented by proxy, each and every subscription often dol- lars paid having one vote. Three fit and disinterested persons shall be appointed by the Board of Trustees three weeks pre- vious to each election of Trustees of said Asylum, inspectors of the next election. The said Board of Trustees annually from their own body, shall elect by ballot a President and Treasurer of said Asylum on the first AA^ednesday in June of each year, at eleven o'clock a. m. The annual meeting of the Board of Trustees of said Asylum shall be held on the first A\Tednesday of June in each year, at the office of the Institu- tion, at eleven o'clock a. m." "Section 6. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed." THE AMENDED CHARTER OF 1857. The law which Judge Cardozo quotes to sustain the legal adjournment of the charter day Avas repealed in the amended charter passed April 15th, 1859, and also in the amended charter passed March 21st, 1861. A statute repealed twice (if such an act could be committed by the Legislature) should be adjudged dead by the Courts and beyond the povArer of a judicial resurrection. "An Act for the Relief of the NeAV York State Inebriate Asylum and for other purposes. Passed April 15th, 1859, 'three-fifths being present.' Section fifth of this laAV provides and names forty trustees who shall constitute the Board of 302 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Trustees of this Institution. Any vacancy that may hereafter occur in the Board of Trustees of said Institution shall be filled by the remaining Trustees at any meeting duly called for that purpose. Section 6. The Senate, upon recommendation of the Governor, for cause to be specified, may remove any Trustee of said Asylum. Section 7. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed. Section 8. This act shall take effect immediately." The Solid Reasons why Dr. Parker adjourned the charter day are to be found in his deed of sale of the Asylum property to the State of New York for one dol- lar, and in the folloAving vouchers, which were found in the books and papers of the Treasurer of said Asylum, and are now in the United States Circuit Court as evi- dence : VOUCHERS. AUSBURN BIRDSALL'S VOUCHERS FOR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FOR THE NEW YORK STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 1867. Winter Lobbying at Albany,...............................................$2,500.00 Feb. 4, Professional Services,.............................................. 650.00 Jan. 19, Salary as Superintendent of Eepairs per year (at $3,500),........................................................................... 424.10 Feb. 26, Professional Services,............................................ 50.00 Feb. 16, " " ............................................. 80.98 March 18, " " ............................................. 25.00 March 19, " " ............................................. 50.00 June 13, " " ............................................. 100.00 Oct. 14, Keeping horse "Charlie,"....................................... 40.00 Oct. 30, " ox team,.................................................. 66.50 Oct. 25, Professional Services Sup.,.................................... 250.00 Dec. 17, Keeping horse "Charlie,"...................................... 45.00 Dec. 22, Professional Services Sup.,................................... 250.00 Sept. 30, " " ...................................... 400.00 $4,931.58 1868. March 2, Professional Services, Sup., Feb.,......................... 291.66 May 6, " " Sup., Apr.,............................ 291.66 May 24, Carriage hire,........................................................ 15.00 June 1, Professional Services, Sup. for May,....................... 291.66 Julyl, " " " June,...................... 291.66 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 303 Aug. 5, " " " July,.......................$ 29L66 Sept. 30, " " " Sept........................ 291.6(i Aug. 31, " " •' Aug........................ 291.66 Nov. 3. " " " Oct.,....................... 291.66 Dec. 1, " " " Nov.,...................... 291.66 Missing A'ouchers,............................................................... 583.32 1869. Jan. 1, Professional Services, Sup.,..................................... 291.(56 Feb. 27, " " " ..................................... 291.66 March 1, " " " ..................................... 291.66 April 1, " " " ..................................... 291.66 Mayl, " " << ..................................... 291.66 Julyl, " " ..................................... 291.66 July, " " " ..................................... 291.66 ^pt. 1, " " " ..................................... 291.66 Oct. 1, " " " ..................................... 291.66 Nov.. " " " ..................................... 291.66 Nov. 1, " " " ..................................... 291.66 One A'oucher missing........................................................... 291.(56 1870. May 12, Professional Services before the Legislature,........ 500.00 Jan. 1, " " for December, 1869,............ 291.66 Feb. 15, Expenses to Albany,............................................. 24.20 Feb. 28. " " ............................................. 19.34 March 1, Professional Services (for February, 1870,)........ 291.66 April 1, " " (for March, " )......... 291.66 Mayl, " " (for April, " )......... 291.66 May 26, Attending Trustees' Meeting in New York City,... 22.00 1870. Missing Salary A'ouchers for eight months,........................ 2,333.33 1867. Mayl, Missing A'otichers,................................................... 510.00 PETER S. DANFORTH'S VOUCHERS. 1867. Jan. 12, Missing Voucher for.............................................. 304.20 1866. Voucher not found forProfessional Services,........................ 800.00 1868. Jan. 9, A'oucher, Professional Services (in suit on illegal election,).......................................................................... 2,500.00 1867. (Voucher not found,) Lobbying before the Legislature to prevent unfriendly Legislation,........................................ 2,500.00 1867. JuneS, Attending Meeting of Board,................................. 21.80 June 21, " " " ................................. 22.50 June 19, " " " ................................. 29.40 1868. May 12, " " " ................................. 17.00 June 3, " " " ................................. 17.00 1869. July 13, " " " ................................. 8.50 Feb. 12, Going to Washington,........................................... 52.00 June, Attending Meeting,.................................................... 9.00 Dec. 14, " " ..................................................... 10.50 1870. May 10, " " ..................................................... 25.50 Junel, " " ..................................................... 23.00 1867, May 1,................................................................................... 200.00 304 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. President Dr. Willard Parker received from the Treasurer for Pro- fessional Services and Traveling Expenses,..................................$ 800.00 There Avas paid to the Trustees of the New York State Inebriate \svlum by the Treasurer, for Traveling Expenses and Profes- sional Services for the years 1867, 1868, 1869, and 1870,.......... 6,068.00 LAWYER'S FEES PAID. 1868. May 15th, John K. Porter, (Worrall vs. Trustees),...........$1,000.00 ' 16th, Malthers & Weaver, ...... 500.00 June 19th, O.W. Chapman, of Binghamton, " ...... 500.00 May 26th, Ab'm.R. Lawrence, of N.Y. City, " ..... 500.00 1869. Dec. 9, Henry E. Davies & Noah Davis, Profes'nl services, 1,000.00 --Chapman & Martin, of Binghamton, " 1,900.00 1868. May 30th, John K. Porter,................................................. 500.00 1867. May 22nd, George Bartlett, Professional Sen-ices,............. 200.00 1868. Dec. 12th, Lewis Seymoure,................................................. 708.71 1866. " 7th, " .................................................. 25-00 1867. April 6th, " .................................................. 208.71 1868. Dec. 19th, " .................................................. 500.00 John P. H. Tallman, Trustee, Profes'nl Services, 840.00 1868. Mar. 31st, " " " 40-09 1869. Mar. 20th, " " " l°0-00 1867. May 1st, Henry AV. Rogers, " 100.00 1868. Mar. 2nd, Judge Griswold, 15-00 Mar. 7th, << " " 30.38 1869. Mar. 2nd, " " " 6o-00 1868. June 6th, C. AY. Sanford, " 20.00 1869, May 29th, Henry A. Foster, " " 120.50 Bill of Smith M. Weed, Trustee,.......................................... 1,132.50 1868. May 9th, Bill of the Attorney Genl's.................................. 50.00 1867. June 21st, J. P. Pugsley, for services in transmitting Dr. Parker's deed of Asylum property to Albany,................. 52.79 " July 2nd, J. P. Pugsley,...................................................... 5.00 " Aug. 3rd, " for services in procuring proxies for Dr. Parker,........................................................................ 168.00 1868. July 31st, O. B. Chapman, for Professional Services,......... 50.00 $39,070.95 Vice-President Birdsall's representations to the In- surance Companies at the time (1867) he effected an insurance on the buildings, that there was no carpenter's risk on them, while it was proven in Court that carpen- ters had been at work all the time in its buildings, and that, on the day of the night in which the fire occurred, there were ten carpenters at work, cost the Asylum, $125,000.00. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 305 The amount paid out of the treasury of the Asy- lum to the founder to "get rid of him" was $35,000.00. This amount would have been saved by the Asylum, had Dr. Mott been President. Three years' salary of Dr. Day, Supt., at $3,500, $10,500.00. This amount would have been saved to the Asylum if Dr. Parker's policy liad not been adopted. Thus it will be seen that it was left to a " public- spirited Board of Trustees, headed by Dr. Parker" to take, in three years, for professional services from the funds of the Ncav York State Inebriate Asylum, includ- ing its losses, $209 570.95. While during the presidencies of John D. Wright, B. F. Butler, R. H. Wahvorth, Dr. Francis and Dr Mott, not a dollar was expended from the funds of the Asy- lum for the professional services or the traveling expen- ses of its trustees, and not a dollar for laAvsuits. As the Court could not find the books in which the Asylum account of income and expenditure from pa- tients were kept, or the books of record in which the names of patients were recorded, we were compelled to estimate the number of patients treated in the Asylum, and the amount of money received from said patients during the twelve years the Inebriate Asylum was con- trolled by Dr. Parker. Doctor Dodge's report to the Legislature of the State for 1872, shows that there were treated in the Ncav York State Inebriate Asylum for 1871, (315) three hundred and fifteen Inebriate patients, and there were received for 1871 from patients for their medical treatment and board, ($10,968.85) forty thou- sand nine hundred and sixty-eight dollars and eighty- five cents. If the number of patients treated and the amount of money received for their treatment in 1871, was the average amount which the Asylum received per 20 ' 306 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. year, then the Asylum must have treated the following number of patients: (3,708) three thousand, seven hun- dred and eight patients, and received the large sum of ($491,626.20) four hundred and ninety-one thousand, six hundred and twenty-six dollars and twenty cents. Not a voucher could be found or a book discovered by the Court, showing where these hundreds of thousands of dollars had been disbursed or hidden away. There was not a trustee remaining in the board who was elected in 1866, and who survived its illegal election in 1867, its amended charters and its bitter contentions, but its President, Dr. Willard Parker. Not an officerj clerk, agent or subordinate outlived the changes inci- dent to the appointment of six medical superintendents but James Brown, the colored man, who was one of the agents employed by the ring to procure by his testimony an indictment against the founder. The moneys received by the New York State Ine- briate Asylum on account of medical treatment and board of its patients were paid to its superintendent. The names, the accounts and the records of its patients were kept by its Secretary, at the office of the Asylum. The amount of money paid to its trustees for their pro- fessional services and traveling expenses were paid out of the Excise Fund by its Treasurer, which fund the Asylum received from the counties of the State to be expended in the construction of the buildings of said Asvlum. We, the undersigned, do hereby agree icgive " The JVew York State Inebriate Asylum " as a Fund to lie-build and Finish said Asvlwn,all'sums of money which we annex to our respective Signatures, when the Stockholders of said Institution are reinsta- ted in their Vested (Rights RESIDENCE. u /c ^jfaA^Vy/(jUi (T^yyiry lY'jLtr*, i/nJZ. C^V^Aj4^.'&ve^y> ^#^i*ihJ4#/& &tf "*& **** vr&^r. S2~~ ''tyyuau /AC^r We, the undesigned, do hereby agree Icgive " The /Jew York State Inebriate jsylum " as a Fund to (Rebuild and Finish said Asvlwn,all'sums of money which we annex to our respective Signatures, when the Stockholders of said Institution are reinsta- ted in their Vested (Rights NAME, RESIDENCE. AMOUNT . /y 4 $&**, fay *£~&<^ ^ We the undersigned, do hereby agree tc give "'The /Jew York State Inebriate Asylum " as a Fund to JCi /tr-0?r V^c^^ctej*/ IOOO t/i^MytVlS*-, JtoffO, Ob&*^ z^& /a. && /fy -sV- /t3^yt/C*^. 4£ Z^i*-U *tfojXC /[/\y\'^y\y\/\/\/^\/L.ctj .0.4. /fbrlhsn&tr^ 6idi^fo™^>rffl/o;#' We, the undersigned, do hereby agree tc give " The JVew York Slate Inebriate Asylum " as a Fund to rRe=build and Finish said Asvlwn,all sums of money ivhich we annex to our respective Signatures, when the Stockholders of said Institution are reinsta- ted in their Vested (Rights NAME RESIDENCE. J&*^A-— J 6? -1 Ct^/e. <£t*J J^¥frx/a^ ffoJ? 1t"*« ft*k% /0 ' ?z "6 /b. -m CHAPTER VIII. After the fire in 1869 destroyed the rear buildings of the Asylum, which were never rebuilt, the writer began the work of interesting the old stockholders in raising a fund to rebuild them. In 1870 a subscription book was opened, and more than two years were spent by him in securing subscriptions to this fund. A few pages of the subscription already given show who are the subscribers to this fund, and the condition upon which their subscriptions were made. The writer began the work of interesting the stock- holders in the transfer of their Asylum stock to him in 1872. He found that public opinion had been so warped by Dr. Parker's stories, invented and industriously circu- lated for that purpose, that it often required a statement of more than ordinary character to remove the impression left upon individual minds, thus adding greatly to the otherwise arduous labor involved in seeing and asking each stockholder for a transfer of stock; but among them all, and they were thousands, only thirty-eight refused to make the transfer. Several of these transfers are reproduced in this work with statements of the opinion of their late owners upon the many questions involved in the transaction between Dr. Parker and the State of New York (317) 318 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. The reader, by reviewing the objections made by the share-holders who declined to transfer their Asylum stock to the writer, can gather some idea of the plans invented and the appliances put forth by which a public prejudice was created against the founder. The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher became interested in founding the Inebriate Asylum in 1852, subscribed to its capital stock in 1855, paid his subscription in 1857, made his subscription to the Woman's National Hospital in 1880, paid for the same in 1881, and advocated its cause in private as well as in public. In the year 1872, the founder called upon Mr. Beecher and solicited his transfer of Asylum stock. After he had patiently listened to a plan by which the Asylum was to be reor- ganized and a large number of free beds established for poor patients, Mr. Beecher replied to the founder that it was eminently proper and eminently just that all the stockholders of the Inebriate Asylum should transfer their stock to the founder, but my stock, said Mi*. Beecher, must be made an exception, as I am a relative of Dr. Willard Parker, and our families have enjoyed years of uninterrupted friendships which I can not mar or disturb by any act or word of mine. Your reasons, said the founder, are unanswerable from the family and social stand-point of life, but from the higher stand-point of human excellence as was found in the teachings of Christ, it comes far short of his divine standard as illus- trated in the parable of the good Samaritan. If the good Samaritan had been a relative of the thieves "who stripped the man of his raiment and wounded him and departed leaving him half dead,11 the world would have been without a good Samaritan down to the present day. The founder fell into bad hands, has been plundered, misrepresented and ill-treated, and left to perish by the HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 319 wayside, and he now appeals to your great heart for suc- cor and relief. Mr. Beecher replied that he had known Dr. Willard Parker for more than a quarter of a century, and regarded him as a Christian gentleman endowed with a large benevolence. He distributed his gifts liberally to all religious and humane enterprises, and lectured upon ine- briety as a disease before the students of theological schools and colleges Avithout remuneration, and yet with all his Christian character manifested in his every-day life, there were some persons mean enough and degraded enough to slander him by stating that he received fifteen thousand dollars annually for the rental of a hotel and bar-room. Such a malicious statement is so inconsistent with the doctor's life and reputation that I can not believe any one would credit such an insinuation. For a man Avho would lecture on intemperance and at the same time be engaged directly or indirectly in the hotel and bar- room business could not be less than a moral leper. AVhen Mr. Beecher in 1880 subscribed to a fund to found and build a Woman's National Hospital, he remarked that no one could feel a greater interest in such an institution than himself, as he once had a near relative whose wife had been a victim of strong drink and opium, and that a hospital for the medical treatment for inebriate women was as much needed as any asylum. In 1885 the founder interested Mr. Beecher in a plan by which the churches were to co-operate in building the Woman's National Hospital. As soon as the plan was fully explained to Air. Beecher, he replied that he Avould be most happy to begin this good work by pledg- ing two hundred dollars for Plymouth Church as a fund to finish and furnish a room in the institution, and he would also pledge sixty dollars for the Mayflower Mis- 320 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. sion as a fund to build an arch in its wall. It will be an easy task, continued Mr. Beecher, to find three hun- dred clergymen among the multitude of ministers, who are subscribers to the hospital fund to pledge for their churches the same amount, to finish a room in its wards. There is not a church in this country that is not rich enough to finish a room or place in its walls, an arch, pier, cap, lintel or ashler. This novel plan if accom- plished will unite the churches of all denominations in this great work, and create a bond of love and sympathy between all creeds which will endure as long as the hospital lasts. No one can regret the downfall of the Binuham- ton Inebriate Asylum more than myself. I had a near and dear relative Avhose son Avas in the Asylum in 1866. By having her son in its wards, she was relieved of anxieties and burdens which is beyond language to describe. No mother suffered a greater mental strain than she did. Ten long years did this incurable son burden her soul with a never-ending nightmare of tor- ment Avhich folloAved her waking as well as her sleeping hours. In the year 1872, the founder called on the Rev. Dr. Irenaeus S. Prime and solicited a transfer of his Asy- lum stock. After Dr. Prime had patiently listened to a brief history of the New York State Inebriate Asy- lum, the Doctor stated in reply that he had known Dr, Willard Parker for more than thirty years, and he had been associated with him in many charitable objects as well as in the temperance cause and church work. He had found him in all the relations of life a model citi- zen and a godly man. The history of the Inebriate xVsylum and its founder as related to me by Dr. Willard Parker must remained unchanged. No statement to the HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 321 contrary could alter my conviction upon the subject. I was informed by Dr. Parker that every means had been used to indict the founder, and every appliance employed for his conviction. Had the stair-builder lived, said Dr. Parker, the founder would have been con- victed. Dr. Parker has stated on more than one occa- sion that he intended to endoAV free beds in the Asylum for poor patients. Such a generous gift, continued Dr. Prime, in founding free beds in the institution by its able and accomplished President, would have an influ- ence to induce other wealthy men to follow his noble example. No stockholder in his sane mind can with- draw his support from Dr. Parker and permit the Asy- lum with all its great interests to drift into the hands of bad men. Such a course of criminal indifference on the part of its stockholders would deserve the severest censure. The-founder called upon Dr. Jared Lindsley, trustee of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and solicited the transfer of his Asylum stock. In reply, he stated that he accepted a trusteeship in the corporation of the Inebriate Asylum through the earnest request of Dr. Parker. I was told, continued Dr. Lindsley, by Dr. Parker, that soon after the adjourned charter day, it was necessary to erase from the stock-book the names of the stockholders who would not give their proxies to liim. Such a measure continued Dr. Parker was only justifiable in a desperate fight to retain the control of the Asylum and defeat the many-sided villain Turner from recapturing the Asylum. During my trusteeship in the Asylum, said Dr. Lindsley, I was told by Dr. Parker that he would make the Inebriate Asylum a success, if it required all of his time and half of his fortune. No hospital, said Dr. 21 322 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Parker, in this country will occupy a more prominent position before the world; hence the necessity of secur- ing a board of trustees composed of men who are known for their professional ability, large benevolence and pro- found religious conviction. In the year 1867, said Dr. Lindsley, when Dr. Day was Superintendent of the Asylum, my son was a patient in its wards, and no one can appreciate the great good this Asylum has acconr plishecl and will accomplish more than myself. In 1864 and 1865, Avhile Dr. Valentine Mott was President of the institution, I was acquainted with five of its patients; Messrs----,----,----,----and----, three of whom were college graduates. Four of these patients are well men to-day and have had no relapses. From what I know of my life-long friend, Dr. Willard Parker, there is no doubt in my mind, or in the minds of the friends of the Asylum, but that he will make the Asylum a model institution and consummate a work which will challenge the admiration of all good men. In 1872 the founder called upon the Hon. Henry R. Pierson, iioav Chancellor of the board of Regents of the State of Ncav York, and solicited the transfer of his Asy- lum stock. After the Chancellor had heard the founders statement, which embraced a brief history of the Inebri- ate Asylum, he replied that in 1866 Dr. Parker invited him to become a trustee in the Asylum, and he accepted the same. In 1867 he attended the annual meeting of the board, and was present when Dr. Parker and Mr. Birdsall suggested that the board take a recess to hold a private counsel as to the plan of adjourning the charter day so as to prevent the election of the opposition ticket. The board re-assembled after ten minutes intermission, and passed a resolution that the charter day be postponed two weeks, and a circular be issued signed by Dr. Wil- HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 323 lard Parker, President, and Ausburn Birdsall, Vice- President, soliciting the proxies of the stockholders to vote for Dr. Parker's ticket. This measure of adjourning the charter day was thought by many of the trustees to be an unlaAvful act and in violation of the laws of the State, yet the necessity of defeating the man whom Dr. Parker regarded as a knave was justifiable, and all good citizens would uphold the act. I did not take any part, continued the Chancellor, in the monthly meeting which passed the resolutions authorizing Dr. Parker to deed the property to the State for the consideration of one dollar. This act of conveying the property to the State was accomplished by Dr. Parker and five local trustees Avith- out even the knowledge of the remaining trustees or stockholders of the corporation, and therefore I am not responsible for this unlaAvful act. The future will tell whether the board at the annual meeting was justifiable in adjourning the charter day to give Dr. Parker time to defeat the opposition ticket, headed by Chancellor Wal- worth and Ex-President Millard Fillmore. In 1879 the founder called again upon the Chancellor and solicited his transfer of stock, and was refused the second time. In 1872 the founder solicited of Ex-Judge Joseph S. BosAvorth the transfer of his Asylum stock. After the judge had given a patient ear to the plan of the founder, he stated he could not transfer his asylum stock to any one who was inimical to Dr. Parker. I have served, continued the judge, several years in the Police Board when Dr. Parker was acting as a commissioner in the Board of Health. I have every reason to look upon his statement to be true in reference to the management of the Binghamton Asylum by its founder. After Dr. Parker had returned from Binghamton he stated to me that he was in court during the trial and heard all the 324 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. evidence, and was convinced that the founder Avas guilty although the jury acquitted him. The doctor also stated to me that the founder was an English adventurer who had left a wife and family in England unprovided for, and that letters had been received in this country stating that Turner had left England under a cloud. The Hon. Smith M. Weed, a trustee of the Asylum, was solicited in 1872 to transfer his one share of Asylum stock to the founder. The honorable gentleman declined to transfer his stock, and gave his reasons as follows: "The Asylum is hoav under the direction and management of one of the most celebrated surgeons of America, Dr. Willard Parker. The interests of the institution would be better protected and its great work be accomplished more surely under its present head than by any other administra- tion. The Asylum has noAv become self-sustaining under the superintenclency of my old friend, Dr. Daniel Dodge. My opinion of the founder, said Mr. Weed, is in accord with that of Dr. Parker, and under no circumstances could I permit- my interest in the Asylum stock to be transferred to a man whose reputation was so bad, and whose management of the Asylum had challenged the severest censure of Dr. Parker and the local trustees. To build up successfully this great institution, it will require men of the highest moral character to be its trustees, men who will serve its interests without com- pensation or an expected reward. Such men, I am happy to say, noAv fill the board of the New York State Ine- briate Asylum. In reply to Mr. Weed's statement, the founder remarked that the common rumor in Bing- hamton was that the trustees of the Asylum had already extracted from its funds more than thirty thousand dollars for professional services and traveling expenses, and that he had received already eleven hun- HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 325 drecl and thirty-two dollars for traveling e,rpe::ses and professional services. *Such is the fruitage of a board of trustees whose moral character is above reproach, and whose professional service were to be given without compensation or expected reward. There was no fact connected with the history of the Inebriate Asylum that was so difficult for the legal pro- fession to understand, as the illegal transfer of the Asy- lum property to the State of New York, made under an unconstitutional law; an act so utterly inconsistent with the provisions of the constitution of the United States, that not a judge or a lawyer who resided outside of the State of New York could be found who believed that such an outrage could have been perpetrated in col- lusion with the officers of a great State. But when the charter of the Asylum and its amendments were read, the transfers of the Asylum stock of fifty judges and ex-judges were shown and the affidavits of the five judges of the Court of Appeals were exhibited, which set forth that said judges were stockholders in the corporation of said Asylum, that they had paid for their stock, had transferred their stock to the founder, and that Dr. Par- ker had donated by deed the Asylum property to the State of New York without their consent or knowledge. After all these facts were produced they were considered testimony conclusive enough to convince the profession that a wrong had been perpetrated, and an unconstitu- tional act had been passed, which could only have been enacted by a State that had been subjugated by a Tweed. Such a State, holding a property procured under such manipulations, could repeat the unconstitutional act whenever corrupt men could be procured to perpe- trate a fraud. * See A'oucher of Mr. AA'eed, page 304. MILLARD FILLMORE. . _...... have hereunto set /W*y............____hand and seal the ----f^..t&C£jJLKS£cZ".day of........<^LtA^^L^^-— one thousancVeight hundred and v&LArU^*s£r ZtAri) . Sealed a/nd delivered in the presence of JrU C C%n^~ $ c^Sk^fc,: 328 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. The writer called upon the Hon. Millard Fillmore, ex-President of the United States, and solicited the transfer of his Asylum stock. The venerable ex- President stated that he had been a trustee of the New York State Inebriate Asylum for more than six years, and that he had taken a great interest in its work since he had subscribed to its stock in 1856; that he had talked with Judge Hall, of the United States District Court, upon the legal right of the State of New York to hold and possess the property of the Asylum under a deed made and executed by Dr. Parker without the consent of the stockholders, the consideration being one dollar; that Judge Hall stated that the trans- action was an illegality to which the State of New York was a party; and that all deeds made under such con- ditions were vitiated. Mr. Fillmore then transferred his one share of the Asylum stock to the writer. At the same time he subscribed ten dollars to a fund to assist in paying the costs of testing in the Courts the rights of the stockholder. The preceding page is a copy of the transfer of Millard Fillmore, which is also an exact copy of all the transfers made by the stockholders to the founder. THE STATEMENT OF THE HON. SMITH VAN BUREN, EXECU- TOR OF THE ESTATE OF THE LATE MARTIN VAN BUREN, EX-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. When Mr. Van Buren transferred the Asylum stock belonging to the estate of his late father, he remarked that he had consulted ex-Judge Ira Harris as to the legal rights of the stockholders of the New York State Inebri- ate Asylum, to sell and transfer the stock of the share- holders of said Corporation to its founder. The learned judge's opinion was that the pretended conveyances of the real and personal property executed by Dr. Willard Parker as President of said Corporation were and are w« foB value received, "have "bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these presents do bargain, sell, assign and transfer unto J. Edward Turner.foriginator and-founder of New York State Inebriate Asylum of .^ilton, Connecticut,.. New York State Inebriate Asyldm, ffyuz^...............Share of the Capital Stock of the standing in . UcE".. nnme^m the Books of the New YorJ£ State Inebriate Asylum, and do hereby constitute and appoint said J Edward Turner,,.. -^................have hereunto set... *rv-*-rV................... hands and gealJS the ^S>arr4»r^fc*^*C day of Q*&*rnrS*SLl\A..__........one thousand eight hundred andSfl Sealed and delivered in the -presence of f? , . yj? , &tt&ju3*i^md<&cinonMy' jt,*/?/^ 330 HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. null and void and of no force or effect, and that such a deed did not impair the vested rights of the stockhold- ers of said Corporation. After reading Mr. Parton's article published in the Atlantic Monthly, entitled a Yisit to the Inebriate Asy- lum, continued Mr. Yan Buren, he could not understand why Mr. Parton styled the founder of the Asylum a vil- lain and Dr. Willard Parker a public benefactor, as the records of the Asylum proved that not a dollar of its funds had been taken by its founder, or a charge made against him in writing and filed before the Investigating Committee. I have also read Mrs. Willard Parker's article pub- lished in the Advocate and Guardian. This article was handed to me by a friend of Dr. Parker's who stated to me that Mrs. Willard Parker was its author, and that every statement made in the article was true to the very letter. The Hon. James AY Beekman, an ex-trustee of the Inebriate Asylum sent to me a pamphlet containing a history of the illegal election. This pamphlet was read with no common interest, and it proved that bad men had captured the Asylum and that its founder had been morally assassinated to give place to a class of pre- tenders. My life-long friend, the late Hon. B. F. Butler inter- ested my late father in the Asylum's work and assured him that he had an unbounded faith in the future suc- ces of the undertaking. [Mr. Yan Buren's transfer of stock is now in court as evidence.] THE STATEMENT AND TRANSFER OF THE HON. WILLIAM A. WHEELER, EX-VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Mr. Wheeler in the year 1856 subscribed for one share of the stock of the Inebriate Asylum, and paid for the same at the time of subscribing. He transferred his now all Ufa bg these fPreaeuts, that tor value received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these presents do bargain, sell, assign and transfer unto J. Edward Turnei^originator and founder of New York State Inebriate Asylum) of Wilton, Connecticut, —-3gg»^-^ <---- ,"""""'—-sg^- T Share of the Capital Stock of thef Nbw York State Inebriate Asylum,----- standing in ^c^Cname, on the Books of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and do hereby constitute and appoint said J. Edward Turner, £^*^frr7true and lawful Attorney irrevocable for. and in-..i?*£s^^7irname and stead, to his own use, to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any part of the said Stock, and for that purpose to make and execute all necessary acts of Assignment and Transfer, and one or more persons to substitute with like full power, hereby ratifying and confirming all th*t_.'rgain, sell, assum and transfer unto J. Edward Turnerjpriginator and founder of New York State Inebriate Asjjum J .^flion,£nmeeiicu*..........,,_Share of the Capital Stock of *e ^Tew Yobk. State Inebriate Asylum,,---------^....^ma^^^a^.........^^.^.^.--v^ standing in _s^*^__name, on the Books of the New York State Inebriate Asyl constitute andappfSint said J. Edward Turner,-^S*^,uue and lawful Attorney irrevocable^ •ad in-./^fcwrrfcr.....name and stead, to his own u< to sell, assjgjn^transfer and set overall or any i,^ of the said §/6ck, .and .for that purpose to makefahd execute'all necessary acts of Assignment y<# Transfer, and one or more persons to substitute with like full Roger, hereby ratifying and confiraritag all that..: ___^«„^said Attorney or substitute ©^substitutes shalWawfully do by virtue hereof. |H fKtRMS fcfctKOf,.....,....,.. .J?.,.~......—Have hereuiJ1 set----&ZX-----hand and seal »-^«^w- ^-^~-^Z.H«.y" of- Sealed and 'delivered in the presence tf ef^S^o.tfe' thousand eig eieEt hui hundred and ..£m.m... A HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. :«5 a Woman's National Hospital for the medical treatment of inebriate women. At the time Mr. Evarts transferred his stock he stated that he had never consented to the sale of the Asylum property to the State of New York, and that such a transfer Avas illegal and Avithout effect, and could not impair his right as a stockholder in said Corporation. EX-JUDGE NELSON'S STATEMENT AT THE TIME OF HIS TRANS- FER OF STOCK. The Avriter called on the Hon. Samuel Nelson, an ex-Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who Avas a trustee of the NeAV York State Inebriate Asylum for seA^en years. This distinguished Judge transferred his Asylum stock to its founder, saying: The illegal transfer of the property belonging to the Asylum to the State of NeAV York, does not impair my rights as a stockholder in said corporation. The adjourn- ment of the election day to June 21st, 1867, by the trustees, for the purpose of holding their trusteeship until they could deed the property of said Institution to the State Avas an imposition. The law Avhich authorized the board of trustees to transfer the property of the Hos- pital to the State Avas unconstitutional. In the constitu- tion of the State, Article III, Section 16th, it is provided that no private or local bill which may be passed by the Legislature shall embrace more than one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title. The title of the act from which the alleged authority of the Board was derived to deed its property to the State, was an act entitled, 'An Act to enable the Board of Supervisors of the County of New York to raise money by tax for certain county pur- poses, to extend the poAver of the Metropolitan Police and to provide for the auditing and paying of unsettled SAMUEL NELSON. HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 337 claims against said county.' I have yet to learn, said the Judge, that the Legislature of the State of New York has the power under the Constitution of the Uni- ted States, to pass a law by which it will give legal authority to a board of Trustees to donate or sell my property in a corporation Arithout my knowledge or Avithout my consent. The Constitution of the United States, Article Y, Section 3rd, declares, ' That no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property Avithout due process of law, nor shall private property be taken for public use Avithout just compensation.' The New York State InebriateAsylum is a pirate Corporation, and is owned by its stockholders as much so as a bank or a railroad company. (Judge Nelson's transfer of stock is in court as evidence.) THE STATEMENT OF THE HON. EDWARDS PIERREPONT, EX-ATTORNEY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES. Judge Pierrepont became a stockholder in the United States Inebriate Asylum in 1856, transferred his Asylum stock to the founder in 1872, and in 1880 made a subscription to a fund to found and build a Woman's National Hospital for the medical treatment of inebriate Avomen. When Judge Pierrepont transferred his stock, he remarked that Dr. Willard Parker had deeded the Asylum property to the State of NeAV York without his consent or knoAvledge, and that such a transfer could not legally convey the property of the Asylum to the State. Under the charter granted to the Inebriate Asylum in 1854, the stockholders were made incorporators and the owners of said Corporation, and the title of all its estates were vested in the share-holders, and could not be sold or given away Avithout the written consent of the stockholders. 22 THAT' § C^Uwaj^ Jvj^v^XoUa-^ ^ lA^.(r^ J for value received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these presents do bjrgain, sell, assign and transfer unto J Edward Turnerfpnginator and founder of New York State Inebriate Asylum I of Wilton, Connecticut, frv^A........——............■■ »^.............-----Share of the Capital Stock of the New York State Inebriate Asvlum, standing in "^M.....name, on the Books of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and do hereby constitute and appojnt said J Edward Turner, f\A — true and lawful Attorney irrevocable for rv\A. and in......^^.........—-name and stead, to his own usl, to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any part of the said/Stock, and for that purpose to make and execute all necessary acts of Assignment and Transfer, and one or more persons to substitute with like full power, hereby ratifying and confirming all that... (\i$\---.said Attorney or substitute or substitutes shall lawfully do by virtue hereof |ll SSBltnWS iofcmof,.........j^........_....................have hereunto set___r*<*~&______......hand and seal ifc ............>f\__ i................ day of C^-V-Z-------.........one thousand eight hundred and Sealed and*deli vexed in the pretence of /q ^—. i $nnw all H*n b$i thm f^tmnts,™"' for value received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these presents do bargain sell assign and transfer unto J Edward Turner, Wilton, Connecticut,............._<£?y>t£_^..............share of thj Capital Stock of the New York State Inebriate Asylum._____________________ standing in Jtty-----name, on the Books of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and do her.-bv constitute and appoint raid J Edward Turner. . Jzy true and lawful Attorney irrevocable for J^c. and in.. 7/y name and stead, to his own use, to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any part of the said Stock, and for ih.t purpose to make and execute all necessary acts of Assignment and Transfer, and ono or more per.on, to subst.tute with like full power, hereby ratifying and confirming al1 tnar..........A**>.......saul Attorney or substitute or substitute* sliall lawfully do by virtue hereof lit W&MsSbtyxnt, */ ~ have Lereun.o *et /<— . . . hand nnd seal the s —......—<***$■■ day of O/a^ir^x, . one tliou-and i-igtit hundred and ^U<^^^^iij) Sealed and delivered inl/,c jTixtnre of €0?-&C 340 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. JUDGE WAED HUNT'S STATEMENT AT THE TIME OF THE TRANSFER OF HIS ASYLUM STOCK TO THE FOUNDER. On the 22d of October, 1872, the Avriter called upon Judge Ward Hunt, of the United States Supreme Court to solicit the transfer of his Asylum stock. The judge replied: It will give me pleasure to have an opportunity to make over my stock, and also the Asylum stock belonging to the estate of the late Judge Savage. The illegal act perpetrated upon the stockholders of the NeAV York State Inebriate Asylum by Dr. Parker and his associate Trustees has no parallel in the history of cor- porations. My friend and neighbor, Judge Doolittle, one of the original incorporators of the Asylum, and also ah ex-trustee, said to me that the indictment was part of a scheme to destroy its founder, and then to capture the Asylum with its revenues, under the pretense of saving the Hospital from the hands of its uAATicked" pro- jector. I shall now claim the privilege of contributing ten dollars as part of a fund to defray the expenses of a suit for the recovery of the Asylum property from the State. JUDGE m'cOUn's STATEMENT AT THE TIME OF THE TRANS- FER OF HIS ASYLUM STOCK TO THE FOUNDER. At the advanced age of eighty-eight Judge William T. McCoun transferred his ten shares of the Asylum stock to the writer on June 10th, 1873. He remarked: The Asylum and its property belongs to its stockholders. The deed made and executed by Dr. Parker has no title. It is a disgrace to the great State of New York to claim the property of the Institution under such a pretense. The Institution is a private corporation, and belongs to its stockholders; it is an individual estate, which the Constitution of the United States declares shall not be WILLIAM T. McCOUN. now all alien bv these Wttttntt,TaAT for value received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred,'and by these presentsjdo bargain, sell, assign and transfer unto J.^djgard TurnerioriginatoT and founder of New York State Inebriate Asylum I Of Wilton, Connecticut,.......Wt ut,.........^C^^f^^^^^^^----Shafe^wf the CapitalfStock of tbe "Nem? York State Inebri^Srsylom:-------1—..............-----------------—---— v Standfng'in '/9f0t£*-___name; on the Books of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and dV&elB| constitute and apjjfoint said J ErWard Turner, /fytifr* true an'djawful Attorney irrevocable for..^K« 'vmSrai../^Hfl^.........name and stead, to his own tt^e, to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any part of'the" said ^tock, and for that purpos%. to i make and execute all necessary acts of Assignment ant? Transfer, and one or more persons to substitute with like full poweK, hererjy ratifying and confirming all that yyhf*^......safd Attorney or substitute or substitutes shall lawfully do by virtue hereof §11 85Rftrf»8'Vi\mA,^....^L. ...._............haye hereunto set.S/3»aj*.^^^,hand and seal tbe .^L......fi£/h'----. day of—AK^»*t-C»r.______—one thousand ey#t hundred and ^?&£SS/&yJRf7(0tXAAj Seatedand delivered in ikj/itreaenc* or * **+ --so. (r Stated and delivered in thefjbteaenc* or / >7» *- yQ HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 343 taken without due process of laAV, or be taken for public use without a just compensation. The State has received this property, and is a party to the illegality, to the great disgrace of its public and its private citizens. She has hidden this property away in the Safe of her Sovereign power, which prohibits any court from issuing judgment against her. EX-GOVERNOR JOHN A. Dix's STATEMENT. Gov. John A. Dix became interested in the Inebri- ate Asylum in 1854; he made a subscription to its capi- tal stock, and paid it in 1858. He was elected trustee of the Asylum in 1861, and continued in office for five years. He Avas the first subscriber to a fund to rebuild the rear buildings of the Asylum in 1870. He made a transfer of his stock to the founder in 1872, made a sub- scription to a fund to pay the expenses of litigating the , rights of the stockholder, and in 1876, made another sub- scription to the Woman's National Hospital for the medical treatment of inebriate women. When Ex-Gov. Dix transferred his stock, he said that the State of New York was Avithout precedent in receiving and holding the property of the Asylum under an illegal deed ; that he had never given Dr. Parker his consent to deed its estate to the State, nor had he ever received a notice of a meeting of the stockholders when that subject was to be discussed and acted upon. In the year 1876, Dr. Dix stated to the founder that he had read the pamphlet containing the history of the illegal election, in which it was proven that Dr. Parker had called upon some of the largest stockholders for their proxies, but had failed to secure them. Under these circumstances the disobliging stockholders could JOHN A. DIX. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 345 not vote. When men will resort to such means to elect their ticket and secure power, said the Governor, the property Avhich falls into their hands to preserve and protect, is about as safe as a darling child would be in the claAvs of a half-starved tiger. TRANSFER OF ASYLUM STOCK BY HON. SAMUEL L. SELDEN, EX-JUDGE OF THE COURT OF APPEALS, AND HIS STATE- MENT. Hon. Samuel L. Selden transferred his Asylum stock to the founder November 4th, 1873, and made a subscrip- tion of ten dollars to a fund to defray the expenses of litigating the rights of the stockholder, and at this time stated to the writer that, a short time previous to the illegal election, he received a printed circular dated New York State Inebriate Asylum, Binghamton, June 5th, 1867, and signed by Dr. Willard Parker, President, and Ausburn Birdsall, Vice-President, soliciting his proxy to vote at the adjourned charter day June 21st, at 12 m., and later another circular informing him that the charter day had been adjourned to July 23d, at 12 m. : as (the circular stated in substance) a feAv more proxies were needed to make their (Parker and Birdsall's) election certain: that he also received a call from a gentleman who represented Dr. Parker's interests: that this gentle- man stated that the founder of the Asylum had been indicted, and would be convicted when tried: that the best interests of the Institution would be served by the election of Dr. Parker's ticket, which ticket was com- posed of honest, faithful men, who Avould make every personal sacrifice to serve the best interests of this great work: that under the management of these high minded and honorable trustees the enterprise would be guaran- teed against any loss by waste or fraud: that no man in the country would do as much to advance its interests &. THAT y^^Q^ (5^~J£) ^-~X^h for value received,-have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by tbese preserrtTdo bargain, eel), assign and transfer unto J. Edward Turner, Wilton, Connecticut,..—Je^a^......~~.....^- Share of the. Capital-Stock of the New York State Inebriate Asylum——-------------■---------------——' ataudingin . ^H_____.nutf, on tbe Books of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and do here constitute and appoint said J. Edward Turner,^ true and lawful Attorney irrevocable for..:>*J and in ^S .name and stead, to his own us< to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any pa of the"said Stock, and for that purpose to make and execute all necessary acts of Assignment and Transfer, and one or more persons to substitute with like full power, hereby ratifying and confirming all that................= day of...........^^25^^.....:. one thousand eight hundred and Sealed and delivered in the presence of 2*~* t ffwrnfis, that ______________;> .e received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these presents do bargain, sell and transfer unto J. Ed^ardjurner^originator and founder of New York State InebriateAsylun) of Wilton, Connecticut,........../lv^————- eu.^ e.u o ■ > o , , Nkw York State InkbriItk Am!^IiBlZZlZ:'.r" P * °f ^ standing id -(^7.........name, on the Books of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, an^da hereby const.tute and appoint said J. Edward Turner,....................._ uue and lawful Attorney irrevocableS^C , ™.......ffc^~ -•>** ftnd stead' to hi3 own use- ^ sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any pan of the said Stock, and for that purpose to make and execute" all necessary act, of Assignment and .Tthir ^r6 ^ T? Per9°- l° A-UbStitUte With "*» fuU P°Wer' hereb7 ****«« and conSnning all that-...lft«*s-asaid Attorney nraftstitute or substitutes shall lawfully do by virtue hereof PWjUl k|fmf......................C*have hereunto set.O^y^ haod ;int] 5cal tb. -—;••......*■'■ ...... - day of- *^A^*»«A ^ ... one thousand eight hundred and ^>»s^7^ZZ^ Sealed and-'dehvernd itvilli^pi^e^nte of •—» "' ♦.'•^.f- Ijv- v^^w Krl*>--&~—«^ 348 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. and build up its reputation as Dr. Parker: his familiarity with the subject, his deep and all-absorbing interest in the victim of intemperance, and his thorough knowledge of dipsomania as a disease, fully equipped him for the arduous and responsible duties of the presidency of such an institution; and that it is not the fortune of every hospital to have a president of such purity of character and nobleness of purpose. I replied, said Judge Selden, to the gentleman who had so ably represented Dr. Parker's interests, that I could not give my proxy to Dr. Parker,—that no honest man should adjourn the charter day of a corporation because he had been "surprised" by not having a sufficient number of votes to elect his ticket; that such an act would be made a felony by statute laAV, and be pun- ished by hard labor in state prison, and that no institu- tion would be safe under such manipulations, and that every such election would become a farce. Since then, continued Judge Selden to the writer, I have read the affidavits of Noah AVorrall, Jordan L. Mott, Humphrey S. Anderson, and David S. Smith, made in the suit to set aside the illegal election in 1867, and have learned by these affidavits that Dr. Parker had caused the names of some of the largest stockholders whom he or his agents had vainly solicited for their proxies to be erased from the stock-book of the Asylum. These astounding facts led me to examine the charter of the Asylum and its amendments, and also the law under which the transfer of its property to the State had been made. I find by this examination that the charter of the United States Inebriate Asylum under which authority the stockholders of said Asylum* had subscribed their money, first provides that the capital of said corporation * This was the original corporate name of the New York State Inebri- ate Asylum. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 349 shall be fifty thousand dollars, and shall be divided into shares of ten dollars each, and shall be deemed persona] property and transferable in such a manner as the by- laws of said Asylum shall provide. The amended char- ter which changed the name of the corporation to the New York State Inebriate Asylum, provides that every person who shall give to the New York State Inebriate Asylum ten dollars shall be deemed a subscriber and stockholder in said corporation. I was informed in 1859 by the President of the corporation, Chancellor Wal- worth, that all the subscriptions to the capital stock of the Asylum were made on the books of the United States Inebriate Asylum. It was under these conditions that every subscription was made to its capital stock or fund. These same conditions of contract are found to exist between every stockholder and every corporation in this country. It is thus seen that the fundamental law of corporations guarantees the stockholder of the Asylum the right to hold or to transfer his stock to any person or persons whom he may choose, and that his stock becomes part of his estate, and descends to his heirs as a part of their inheritance. There is no princi- ple in law so well established as the legal right of a stockholder in a corporation to vote for the election of trustees and the right to transfer his stock. These pre- rogatives of a stockholder have guaranteed the right of Judge Samuel Nelson, Ward Hunt, Sanford E. Church, William F. Allen, Charles Andrews, Theodore Miller, Robert Earl, George F. Comstock, Henry R. Selden, Charles Mason, William T. McCoun, Henry E. Davis, Joseph Mullen, Charles H. Doolittle, LeRoy Morgan, Noah Davis, James Em mott, Daniel Pratt, William A. Bacon, Hiram Gray, A. C. Hand, John M. Mason, John W. Edmonds, Charles Peabody, Edwards Pierrepont, 350 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. John M. Parker, Murray Hoffman, Charles P. Daly and others, (whose transfers Mr. Selden had examined) to transfer their Asylum stock to yon, its founder. [It is fairly presumable that tnese eminent judges and able lawyers would not have transferred their Asylum stock without having first examined the charter. Some of these accomplished judges have presided on the United States Supreme Court bench, and others have filled and are now filling the judgeships of the higher courts of the State. Every transfer of stock made by these judges was an endorsement of their legal opinion that the stockholders were the legal owners of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and that the State could have no ownership in its property under the illegal deed of Dr. Parker. These learned jurists were not idiots to perpetrate a foolish act, or knaves to be guilty of a deception by transferring property not their own.] (Ex-Judge Selden's transfer of stock and the transfers of the gentlemen above named are in Court as evidence.) EX-JUDGE HENRY R. SELDEN'S TRANSFER OF ASYLUM STOCK, AND HIS STATEMENT. Ex-Judge Henry R. Selden transferred his Asylum stock to the founder November 4th, 1872, and stated to him that, in his opinion, the amended charter of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, passed March 1st, 1861, empowering said Corporation to issue bonds to the amount of $60,000, and mortgage its property to secure the payment of its bonds, absolutely annulled every claim which the State of New York had against the Ine- briate Asylum, and, at the same time, repealed all laws by which said State could in any way claim its property; and that it would have been no greater wrong to cheat the bond-holders of said Asylum out of their bonds and interest, than it was for the State to have taken the for value received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these present^!,, bargain -e.l] assign and transfer unto J. Edward Turner, Wilton, Connecticut.....-.. J^*^J^„ jiame, onrthe Books of the New York State Inebriate A-Mun., vDd do neret* tetuhtute and appoint said J. Edward Turner, jfVVy.. true and lawful Attwncv ..revocable for "Httl and in..m**f ;name and stead, to his own use, to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any part of the said Stock, and for that purpose to make and execute all. necessary acts of Assignment and ^T' St ^ °l T? Pe"°n9 t6 8UbSti 'Ute Wkh 1,ke ful1 P°wer; hereby ratifying, and confirming an WM...J1.......yM said Attorney or substitute or substitutes shall lawfully do by virtue hereof. taW totmyf,,.....%! ..... have hereunto set *^W--------ltond-nnU s Attoroej irrevocable f„r „£_ IWer «„d one or mote person, ,„ ,ubstiwtt with,ik, ft.fr T"? "aiof Assi8»™»' "d 8,1 ^^.......:zATy^^ -have hereunto set-./I^^,^, and ^ tfae one thousand eighth ui/dred arrd, /-^^Jc^^^ .- day of iSealed^nd delivered itojhe presence of -vAbsuAj 4.&Xu><£~ 354 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. given him for carrying out the illegal transaction. At the time I transferred my Asylum stock, I made a careful ex- amination of all the laws pertaining to its charter and its amendments, and I failed to discover any right of the State by which she could under the Constitution of the United States legally hold and possess the property of the stockholders of the Inebriate Asylum without their consent: neither can the purchasing of the sixty thousand dollar mortgage add one legal right to the deed—the mortgagor having been deprived of the use of his estate to satisfy the mortgage. The State having been a party to the unlawful act, she is deprived of the legal right of foreclosure. To gain this legal right, she must establish the mortgagor in the possession of this estate. This is the embarrassing position in which the Attorney-General finds the State—a mortgagee in possession without legal powers to foreclose, and with rentals and incomes belonging to the Asylum already accumulated, amounting to more than the value of the mortgage, leaving but a valueless deed for compensation. To remedy all the mistakes under which the State had unlawfully gained possession of the stockholder's property, she has been compelled to resort to a new dodge, and now claims the right to refuse through her Attorney-General to appear at the bar of the United States Court to defend her title in the property of the Inebriate Asylum. When Judge Emmott made his subscription to found a Woman's National Hospital in 1880, he said: When I learned that Judge Blatchford had ruled that a subscriber to the fund of the New York State Inebriate Asylum was not a stockholder, and had no stockholder's rights, I began to think that I was either a knave or a fool in transferring my Asylum stock to the founder. As an ex-judge of the Supreme Court, no one would HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 355 hardly believe that I was ignorant of what constitutes a stockholder in a corporation, and under these circum- stances would hardly call me a "fool"—and, if I had knowingly committed the wrong, the act itself would stamp me as a wrong-doer. With this view of the sub- ject, I made a second examination of the charter of the Asylum, its amendments, and all the laws which affected its organization. I found that its original charter passed April 15th, 1854, under which I subscribed and became a stockholder, provides that its capital shall be fifty thousand dollars, and shall be divided into shares of ten dollars each, and shall be deemed personal property, and transferrable in such a manner as the said Asy- lum by-laws direct, and the interest on the capital stock of said Asylum shall not exceed seven per cent. The amended charter, passed March 27th, 1857, provides that every person who shall give the sum of ten dollars to the New York State Inebriate Asylum shall be deemed a subscriber and a stockholder, and also a corpo- rator. The original charter provides that no shareholder of the Asylum shall be liable in his or her individual capacity for any contract, debt, or engagement of said Asylum after the full amount of his or her stock is paid in. This section of the amended charter differs from the original charter by one word, "subscriber," in place of "shareholder." Section 6 of the original charter pro- vides that all the affairs and concerns of said Asylum shall be managed and controlled under the direction of twenty directors who shall be stockholders, and citi- zens of the State of New York, and who shall be elected by the stockholders annually on the first Monday of January in each year, by ballot, by plurality of the stockholders present and represented by proxy, each share having one vote. The amended charter by this act differs from the original act only in the use of the 356 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. word " subscriber " for " stockholder,1' the word " trustee " for " director," and the word " forty " for " twenty." The condition of the gift of ten dollars to the New York Inebriate Asylum, made under the amended charter, is that the subscriber of ten dollars shall be deemed a stockholder and also a corporator with all the powers, rights and privileges of a stockholder. If Judge Blatch- ford had examined with care the charter and its amend- ments, he would not have placed the stockholders of the Asylum (among whom were some of the ablest legal minds of the country) in the position of attempting to sell property which they did not own or control. I know of no decision of the court which has in any way established the principle that a subscriber to the fund of a corporation is not a stockholder, when the charter of said corporation provides that a subscriber to its funds shall be a stockholder. In my humble opinion there will never be such a ruling made and confirmed by the highest court. (Ex-Judge Emmott's transfer of stock is in court as evidence.) THE HON. CHARLES MASON'S—EX-JUDGE OF THE COURT OF APPEALS—TRANSFER OF STOCK AND STATEMENT. Judge Mason transferred his Asylum stock to the founder the 24th day of October, 1872, and in the year 1873 made a subscription to a fund to litigate the legal rights of the stockholders of the New York State Ine- briate Asylum. At the time Judge Mason transferred his stock, he remarked to the founder that Dr. Willard Parker had deeded the Asylum and all its estate, real and personal, to the State of New York without his con- sent or knowledge; that such a conveyance was an illegal act which the Court could not confirm nor any constitutional power of the State could legalize. When the State of New York, continued Judge Mason, received the property of the Inebriate Asylum under Dr. Willard %UB-W ill THAT ftcvalue received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these presents do bargain, sell, ',"%\tod transfer unto J. Edward Turner, Wilton, Connecticut,______C^H-4grrrrr>.____Share of the "ft^Stbek of the New York State Inebriate Asylum,______________.________________ standing in ^irv^/T~^aame, on the Books of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and do hereW;- con8titute'an4 -appoint said J. Edward Turner,/^l^/- true and lawful Attorney irrevocable forf-^eyf^L and in ../r2^t-t-y ytfame and stead, to his own us£; to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any part ^ of the said Stcfctf, and for that purpose to make and execute all necessary acts of Assignment and Transfer, and one or more persons tp substitute with like full power, hereby ratifying and confirming all that.....fl4»«**/^,.....said Attorney or substitute or substitutes shall lawfully do by virtue hereof. |n WAmSjj^mtli;, ...of ... hav£_bereunto set ^/^t^f^^ZX^A and Seal th&__2_ ......A»-#=_ —day of -<3L_£x4fc?rzr.----one thousandlefeht hundred and- ^Le^j^£4AZCt^\^tlt^ Sealed and delivered in the presence, of C%3aJL^(7hM&c) 358 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Parker's alleged deed, she converted her sovereign power into a despotism and placed the Asylum property beyond the process of law. Such an unlawful act on the part of the State must in the future tarnish her honor and cloud her fair name. Under no provocation can any citizen of our State scold or censure in the least degree, any of the sister States which have through fraud or through poverty repudiated their honest debts I New York was rich enough, even in the hour of her greatest peril, to pay a premium of more than one hun- dred per cent on gold to save her credit and pay her honest debts, and yet she has adopted the policies and inaugurated the plans of bad men, by which she has seized the private property of citizens without excuse, provocation or constitutional right. My friend and neighbor Judge Doolittle, an ex-trus- tee of the Asylum, stated to me but a short time since, that he had no hesitation in declaring that he felt that the Inebriate Asylum and its funds in the hands of Dr. Parker and his active associates in the board pf trustees, were about as safe against fraud, misappropriation and waste, as a National bank and its funds would be in the custody of a board of directors composed of professional thieves and burglars, and that he believed that no per- son with the instincts of an honest man, after reading the history of the illegal election and the indictment of the founder, could entertain any other view than the one he expressed. TRANSFER OF CHARLES H. DOOLITTLE, JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, AND HIS STATEMENT. Judge Doolittle, one of the original incorporators of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, transferred his Asylum stock to the founder Oct. 22nd, 1872, and at the same time made a subscription to a fund to pay the |Uow all tt bg these f resents, that fbrvalae received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these presents do bargain, sell, assign and transfer unto J. Edward Turner, Wilton, Connecticut, -^fete"*^:......._______Share of the CapitaTStock of the New York Statb Inkbriatk Asylum,____________________________ standing in._..^«^r——. .name, on the Books of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and do he»by constitute aod appoint said J. Edward Turner,^!*-,____true and lawful Attorney irrevocable forJ&z&el «nd xtL^/**.—, name and stead, to his own use, to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any part of the saidSkck, and for that purpose to make and execute all necessary acts of Assignment and Transfer, and one or more persons to substitute with like full power, hereby ratifying and confirming all that.—^^----said Attorney or substitute or substitutes shall lawfully do by virtue hereof. |n Wtom tojftttirf, ..n.^a, <&. «fc- —-----day of. lereunto set _< —hand and seal t! Sealed and one thousand eight hundred and ^/?>J®?£zzz> 360 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. expenses of litigating the rights of the stockholder. The judge on that occasion remarked that he had stated to a large number of the legal profession that any one who would read the proceedings of the meetings of the board of trustees of the Inebriate Asylum for July 10, 1866, and September 11th of the same year; the affida- vits of Noah Worrall, H. S. Anderson and J. L. Mott; the rulings of Judge Cardozo in the unlawful election suit; and the manipulations of the indictment against the founder, would pronounce Dr. Parker and his co-op- erators in the board an organized set of villains. Sena- tor Kernan stated to me, said Judge Doolittle, a few days after the acquittal of the founder, that he had strongly urged Dr. Turner before the trial, to change the place of trial to some other county, as such a prejudice against him had been created in Binghamton as would in a great measure prevent a fair trial; but that the defendant would not under any circumstances allow the change to be made. Binghamton and New York City were the places in which the indictment was invented, and here in Binghamton the trial must take place, said the defendant. Hon. William Ely, of Binghamton, my old friend and classmate, continued the Judge, stated to me but a short time since, that the philanthropic trustees of the Inebriate Asylum headed by Dr. Willard Parker had within three years extracted from the Asylum treasury more than thirty thousand dollars, for which the institution had nothing to show except a few vouch- ers. The Asylum will hardly survive ten years of such depletion, said Mr. Ely. HON. JOHN M. PARKER'S TRANSFER OF STOCK AND HIS STATEMENT. The Hon. John M. Parker, Judge of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, transferred his Asy- tat fog flltgt ^tr«tttjfiltTHAT. far value received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these presents do bargain, sell, 'aasigaand transfer unto J. Edward Turner, Wilton, Connecticut,..,,,...^^2^^^.-....=^^Share of the_ Oajsts! Stock of tbe New York State Inebriate Asylum. J_______________._.__ _ Binding in J/2^y^—^narne, on the Books of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and do hereby constitute and appoint said J. Edward Turner, .^Try.... true and lawful Attorney irrevocable for (?3±*.<- and in ff?>rfj.........tnam,e and stead, to his .own use, to sell, assign," transfer and set over all or any part of the said Stock, and for that purpose to make and execute all necessary acts of Assignment and TrAnster, and one or more persons to substitute with like full power, hereby ratifying and confirming all tnet.^.tf*^^,—said Attorney or substitute or substitutes shall lawfully do by virtue Iiereof. .....»8» toJIMMf.-—C^ __ have hereunto set__,&i~>^-___^hand and seal the 'MizZ&t&s**......_.,day of .-.wr^**-*/***^-,,,-. one thousand eight hundred and jUia**^i-.^vi? ^JSZu Sealed and delivered in the presence of ^fUrJ^r— fa^. 0L.-fcU^ 362 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. lum stock to the founder, and made a subscription of ten dollars to a fund for securing the legal rights of the stockholders. The learned judge then remarked that the State could not perfect its title in the Asylum prop- erty conveyed to her by an illegal deed, by purchasing the Asylum's bonded debt. There is, said he, a principle in law that a mortgage can not merge in an illegal title. This strange predicament places the State in the position of a mortgagee in possession without legal reme- dies to foreclose. As the State has come into possession of the Asylum property illegally, and has been a party to the act; under these circumstances it has but one legal remedy left to gain the possession of the property of the Asylum by foreclosure; namely, the Legislature of the State must first re-instate the stockholders in their vested rights, and give the mortgagors the possession of their property, and then make the said corporation a party to the foreclosure. The judge further remarked, by holding court in Binghamton, residing within twenty-five miles of that city, and having a relative in the Board of Trustees, under these circumstances I have had great opportunities for watching the growth of the Institution, and for learning its inside history. My relative, Mr. George Pumpelly, who has been a trustee in the Asylum for a number of years, informed me that during the cru- sade against the founder, twenty-two bottles of whiskey were found on the Asylum grounds, and that one of these fell into the hands of one of the patients. This wicked scheme, said Mr. Pumpelly to me, nearly cost the life of an officer in the Hospital. The patient who found the whiskey was a hereditary drunkard and a homicidal case of dipsomania, and while under the influence of this liquor he made an attack upon a watchman and injured him for life. Mr. Pumpelly also stated to me that the HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 363 local trustees made every effort to prevent patients enter- ing the Asylum, and also to induce the friends of the patients already in the Asylum, to remove them from it, and he cited many other acts which seemed to him incon- sistent with philanthropic and humane impulses. JUDGE MULLIN'S STATEMENT AT THE TIME OF THE TRANS- FER OF HIS ASYLUM STOCK TO THE FOUNDER. On the 30th of October, 1872, Judge Joseph Mul- lin, one of the original incorporators, transferred his Asylum stock to the writer, and gave ten dollars to assist in litigating the rights of the stockholders. Judge Mullin stated that he had received from Judge Doolittle a copy of the proceedings of the meeting of the Board of Trustees held at Binghamton Sept 11th, 1866. I thus learned, said Judge Mullin, that at that meeting the Board had annulled all the business transacted at the July meeting, ignoring the legal opinions of Chan- cellor Walworth, Judge McCoun, ex-Lieut.-Grov. Camp- bell, and Henry W. Rogers, Esq. Such proceedings were an insult to common decency; it demonstrated that Dr. Parker and the trustees who acted with him, had but one interest in the fight, namely, to capture the Asy- lum or to destroy it. Such a class of trustees could never inspire confidence among the best men of the country in assisting to build up this great work. At the time of the election I received from Dr. Parker a circular, stating that the excuse for adjourning the char- ter day was, " That measures may be taken to protect the Institution from falling into unfriendly hands, whose purposes and objects are unknown." When this cun- ningly worded circular was issued and sent out to the stockholders and followed by agents soliciting the proxies of the stockholders, it was known by Dr. Parker that the opposition ticket was composed of gentlemen whose JOSEPH MULLIN. HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 365 reputation for ability, for honesty and purity of charac- ter was above reproach. JUDGE JOSEPH MULLEN'S TESTIMONY, UNITED STATES CIRCUIT COURT, NORTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK. J. Edward Turner, T. J. Gardner, Charles A. Stevens, vs. The New York State Inebriate Asylum, Willard Parker, John G. Orton, Allen Munroe, Joseph F.Ely, Abel Bennett, William G. Way, Charles Yan Benthuysen, Benjamin F. Bruce, Austin Flint, and the Hon. Charles S. Fairchild as Attorney-General of the State of New York; In Equity. Testimony taken on behalf of complainants for a final hearing under and pursuant to Rule 67 of the United States Supreme Court in Equity, as amended, before Thomas F. Kearnes, Esq., a Notary Public in and for the county of Jef- ferson, residing at the'city of Watertown, N. Y., acting as Special Examiner. Watertown, September 14th, 1877, 11 a. m. Present, J. Alexander Koones, of counsel for complain- ants, and Stephen C. Millard, of counsel for defendants, Joseph Mullin, a witness called on behalf of complainants, being duly sworn, testified as follows: Q. 1. AYhat is your name, age, residence and occupation? A. My name is Joseph Mullin; age, sixty-six years; residence, city of Watertown. Jefferson County, New York; occupation, judge of the Supreme Court. Q. 2. Were you a stockholder in the New York State Ine- briate Asylum, if so, about what time did you become such, who induced you to become a subscriber in said corporation, and to whom did you pay your subscription money? A. I subscribed to that institution the amount of ten dollars at the request of Dr. Turner; that was over twenty years ago, the precise year I can't give. I paid themoney to Dr. Turner, and I supposed thereby I became a stockholder. Q. 3. Have you transferred such stock to any person, and, if so, to whom? A. I did transfer it to Dr. Turner. Q. 4. (Paper shown to witness.) Is that your hand- writing and signature? A. It is. 366 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Paper read in evidence and marked Exhibit No. 1, Sept. 14th, 1877, T. F. K. It is conceded that said Exhibit No. 1 was the same in form as "Complainants' Exhibit No. 1, June 20th, 1877, E. O. P." It is under seal, and is an assignment of one share of stock of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, made by said Joseph Mullin to J. Edward Turner, and is dated Octo- ber 30th, 1872. Q. .">. After January 1st, 1867, up to the time of making such transfer, did you attend or did you receive any notice to attend any meeting of stockholders or trustees of said cor- poration? A. I did not attend any such meeting, and don't recollect receiving any such notice to attend one. Q. 6. Did you ever authorize, ratify or consent to any transfer, conveyance or assignment of the real or personal property of said corporation to the people of the State oi New Y^ork? A. I have no recollection of doing so, and am quite sure I never did. Q. 7. Wrhen did you first learn any thing about the legis- lation referred to in paragraphs X., Y., XXX., XXXIII., and XXXYI., of complainants'amended bill of complaint herein? A. I have no recollection of hearing of the acts referred to in the interrogatory. Q. 8. Were you ever consulted about, did you ever con- sent to, or do, any thing to procure such legislation or any of it? A. I never did. Q. 9. When did you first learn of the transfer of the pos- session of the real and personal property of said corporation, and of its attempted conveyance and assignment to the peo- ple of the State of New York? A. The time I cannot fix. It was several years ago. Q. 10. Were you a trustee of the New York State Inebri- ate Asylum, and, if so, when and how did you become such? A. I was a trustee of the New York State Inebriate Asylum; my recollection is I was appointed by the Legislature. I am the Joseph Mullin named in Exhibits Nos. 2 and 3, and annexed to bill of complaint herein. Q. 11. Were you a, trustee in 1866? A. I think I was till about 1866 or 1867. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 367 Following is the testimony of five judges of the Court of Appeals of the State of New York in the suit now pending in the United States Circuit Court of the Northern District of the State of New York—Chief Justice Church, Justices Allen, Miller, Earl, and Andrews. This testimony was taken on behalf of complainants for a final hearing under and pursuant to Rule 67 of the United States Supreme Court, in Equity, as amended, before Edwin 0. Perrin, Esq., Special Examiner at Albany. Albany, May 23d. 1877, 10 a. m. Present, William Henry Arnoux and J. Alexander Koones, of Counsel for complainants. Adjourned to May 31st, 1877, at 2 p. m. Further adjourned to June 7th, 1877, at 2 p. m. Further adjourned to June 20th, 1877, at 2 p. m. Albany, June 20th, 1877, 2 p. m. Present, William Henry Arnoux. of Counsel for Complain- ants, and Hamilton Harris, of Counsel for the Defendants. Sanford E. Church, a witness called on behalf of complain- ants, being duly sworn, testified as follows: Q. 1. What isyour name, age, residence and occupation? A. My name is Sanford E. Church; age, sixty-two years; residence, Albion, Orleans County, New York; I am Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals of the State of New York, and have been since July, 1870. Q. 2. Were you a stockholder of the New York State Inebriate Asylum; if so, about what time did you become such; who induced you to become a subscriber to said institu- tion; and to whom did you pay your subscription money? A. I was a stockholder of the New Y'ork Inebriate Asylum, and became such upwards of fifteen years ago; the exact time I cannot remember; I was induced to become a sub- scriber by Dr. J. E. Turner; and I paid my subscription monev to him. Q. 3. How many shares of such stock did you subscribe and pay for, and how much did you pay? A. I subscribed for one share of stock in said institution, and paid ten dollars therefor. Q. 4. Have you transferred such stock to any person, and, if so, to whom? A. I have transferred said stock to Dr. J. E. Turner. 368 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Q. 5. (Paper shown witness.) Is that your handwriting and signature? A. It is. Paper offered in evidence and marked Complainants' Exhibit No. 1, June 20th, 1877, E. 0. P. (The transfer the same in form as President Fillmore's, already given.) Q. 6. After January 1st, 1867, and up to the time of making such transfer, did you attend, or receive any notice to attend, any meeting of stockholders of said corporation? A. I never did, to the best of my recollection. Q. 7. Did you ever authorize, ratify, or consent to any transfer, conveyance or assignment of the'real or personal property of said corporation to the people of the State of New York? A. I never did. SANFORD E. CHURCH. Subscribed and sworn before me this 20th day of June, 1877. Edwin 0. Perhin, Examiner. William F. Allen, a witness called on behalf of the com- plainants, being duly sworn, testifies as follows: Q. 1. What is your name, age, residence and occupation? A. My name is William F. Allen; age, sixty-eight; residence, Oswego, New York; I am an associate judge of the Court of Appeals of the State of New York, and have been since Janu- ary, 1870. Q. 2. Were you a stockholder of the New York State Inebriate Asylum; if so, when did you become such; who induced you to become a stockholder to said institution; and to whom did you pay your subscription money? A. I was a stockholder of the New York State Inebriate Asylum about the time of the establishment of the institution; I was induced to become such subscriber by Dr. J. E. Turner, and if I paid it at all, of which I have no recollection, I paid to him such subscription money. Q. 3. How many shares of such stock did you subscribe and pay for? A. One share only I believe. Q. 4. Have you transferred such stock to any person; and if so, to whom? A. I have transferred said stock to Dr. J. E. Turner. Q. 5. (Paper shown witness.) Is that your handwriting and signature? A. It is. HISTOR Y N. Y. ST 1TE INEBRIA TE . 1SYL UM. 369 Paper offered in evidence, and marked Complainants' Exhibit No. 2, June 20th, 1877, E. (). P. It is conceded that said Exhibit No. 2, of this date, is the same in form as Complainants' Exhibit No. 1, of this date, is under seal, and is an assignment of one share of stock of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, made by said William F. Allen, to said J. Edward Turner, and is dated February 13th, 1873. Q. 6. After January 1st, 1.S07, and up to the time of making such transfer, did you attend, or receive any notice to attend, any meeting of stockholders of said corporation? A. No. Q. 7. Did you ever authorize, ratify, or consent to any transfer, conveyance or assignment of the real or personal property of said corporation to the people of the State of New'York? A. I never did, to my recollection and belief, authorize or consent to such transfer or conveyance. william' f. allex. Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 20th day of June, 1S77. Edwin 0. Pehrin, Examiner. Theodore Miller a witness called on behalf of the com- plainants, being duly sworn, testifies as follows: Q. 1. What is your name, age. residence, and occupa- tion? A. My name is Theodore Miller; age. —; residence, Hudson, New York; I am an Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals of the State of New York, and have been since January, 187.1. Q. 2. Were you a stockholder of the New York State Inebriate Asylum; and, if so, when did you become such; who induced you to become a stockholder to said institution; and to whom did you pay your subscription money? A. 1 was a stockholder of the New York State Inebriate Asylum ; 'I became such upwards of fifteen years ago; the date I do not remember; Dr. J. E. Turner induced me to become such stockholder, and I paid to him my subscription money. Q. 3. How many shares of such stock did you subscribe and pay for? A. One share. Q. 4. Have you transferred such stock, and, if so, to Avhom ? A.I have transferred such stock to Dr. J. E. Turner. Q. 5. (Paper shown witness.) Is that your handwrit- ing and signature? A. It is. 24 370 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Paper offered in evidence and marked Complainant's Exhibit No. 3, June 20th 1877. E. 0. P. It is conceded that said exhibit No. 3 is the same in form as Complainant's Exhibit No. 1 of this date, is under seal, and is an assignment of one share of stock of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, made by said Theodore Miller, to said J. Edward Turner, and is dated September 13th 1872. Q. 6. After January 1st, 1867, and up to the time of making such transfer, did you attend, or receive any notice to attend, any meeting of stockholders of said corporation? A. I never did, to the best of my recollection. Q. 7. Did you ever authorize, ratify or consent to any transfer, conveyance or assignment of the real or personal property of said corporation to the people of the State of New York? A. I never did. THEODORE MILLER. Subscribed and sworn to before me this 20th day of June, 1877. Edwin 0. Perrin, Examiner. Robert Earl, a witness called on behalf of the complain- ants, being duly sworn, testifies as follows: Q. 1. AYhat is your name, age. residence and occupa- tion? A. My name is Robert Earl; age fifty-two; residence, Herkimer, New York, I am an Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals of the State of New York, and have been since November, 1875. Q. 2. Were you a stockholder of the New York State Inebriate Asylum; if so, when did you become such; who induced you to become a stockholder to said institution; and to whom did you pay your subscription money? A. I was a stockholder of the New Y'ork State Inebriate Asylum, and became such more than fifteen years ago. I was induced to become such stockholder by Dr. J.E.Turner, and paid my subscription money to him. Q. 3. How many shares of stock did you subscribe and pay for? A. One share. Q. 4. Have you transferred such stock, and, if so, to whom? A. I have transferred such stock to Dr. J.E. Turner. Q. ."). (Paper shown witness.) Is that your handwriting and signature? A. It is. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 371 Paper offered in evidence and marked Complainant's Exhibit No. 4, June 20th, 1877, E. 0. P. It is conceded that said Exnibit No. 4 is the same in form as Complainants Exhibit No. 1 of this date, is under seal, and is an assignment of one share of stock of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and made by said Robert Earl to said J. Edward Turner, and is dated November 15th, 1872. Q. 6. After January 1st, 1867, and up to the time of making such transfer, did you attend, or receive any notice to attend any meeting of stockholders of said corporation? A. I never attended any meeting of stockholders of said corporation, and have no recollection of receiving any such notice. Q. 7. Did you ever authorize, ratify, or consent to any transfer, conveyance or assignment of the real or personal property of said corporation to the people of the State of New York? A. I never did to the best of my recollection. Q. 8. When did you first learn anything about the legis- lation referred to in paragraphs XV, XXX and XXXIII, of the complainant's bill of complaint herein? A. I never knew anything about it. Q. 9. Did you ever consent to, or do anything to pro- cure such legislation ? A. I never did. Q. 10. When did you first learn of the transfer of the possession of the real and personal property of said corpor- ation, and of its attempted conveyance and assignment to the people of the State of New York? A. I never knew it. R. EARL. Subscribed and sworn to before me this 20th day of June, 1877. Edwin 0. Perrin, Examiner. Charles Andrews, a witness called on behalf of the com- plainants, being duly sworn, testifies as follows: Q. 1. What is your name, age, residence and occupa- tion? A. My name is Charles Andrews; age, fifty; residence, Syracuse, New Y'ork. I am an Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals of the State of New York, and have been since July, 1870. Q. 2. Were you a stockholder of the New York State Inebriate Asylum ; if so, when did you become such; and who induced you to become such stockholder; and to whom did 372 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. you pay your subscription money? A. I was a stockholder of the New York State Inebriate Asylum; I cannot state when I became such stockholder, but it was prior to the year 1873. I was induced to become such stockholder by Dr. J. E. Turner, and paid such subscription money to him. Q.' 3. How many shares of stock did you subscribe and pay for? A. One share. Q. 4. Have you transferred such share of stock, and if so, to whom? A. I have transferred such share of stock to said Dr. J. E. Turner. Q. 5. (Paper shown witness.) Is that your handwrit- ing and signature? A. It is. Paper offered in evidence and marked Complainant's Exhibit No. 5. June 20th, 1877. E. O. P. It is conceded that said Exhibit No. 5 is the same in form as Complainant's Exhibit No. 1, of this date, is under seal, and is an assignment of one share of stock of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, made by said Charles Andrews to said J. Edward Turner, and is dated February, 15th, 1873. Q. 6. After January 1st, 1867. and up to the time of making such transfer, did you attend, or receive any notice to attend any meeting of stockholders of said corporation? A. Never to my recollection. CHARLES ANDREWS. Subscribed and sworn to before me this 20th day of June, 1877. Edwin 0. Perrin, Examiner. THE TRANSFER OF JOHN H. MARTINDALE, EX-ATTORNEY-GEN- ERAL OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, AND HIS STATEMENT. Ex-Attorney-General Martindale transferred his Asylum stock to the founder November 4th, 1872. The General subscribed for one share of the Asylum stock in full compliance with the charter of the United States Inebriate Asylum in 1856, and paid for it in 1858. At the time the General transferred his stock, he remarked to the writer that the deed which pretended to convey the Asylum property to the State for the consideration of one dollar was not a legal instrument, and that the conveyance was an unlawful transaction. THAT for value received, have bargained,, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these presents do bargain, sell, assign and transfer unto J Edward Turner, Wilton, Connecticut............&&.£=:,..-r?rrrr^..... Share of the Capital Stock of the New Yore State Inebriate Asylum,......................__................._________________ Standing in «^/<^/_. dame, on the Books of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and do hereby oonstitute and appoint said J Edward.Turner, ftty true and lawful Attorney irrevocable for..r=>**c2- and in ■fT-iy......name and stead,.to his own use/to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any part of the- said Stock, and for that purpose to make and execute all necessary acts of Assignmeut and Transfer, and one or more persons to substitute with like full power, hereby ratifying and confirming all that... >7**^7 said Attorney or substitute or substitutep shall lawfully do by virtue hereof. $«J!8ifaMS tot««0f,^r^.. have hereunto set r^^y ■»£f-//u: •^_tt—-~"...day of. «<^?«^sf*«r<^<«5Z-^r one thousand.eig ■ r-T7?._ hand -nnd seal hundred and./*^^^ the Sealed a/nd delivered in the presence of 374 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. About the time the deed was filed in the office of the Secretary of State, said the General, I stated to Gov. ernor Fenton that it was not worth the paper it was written upon, as Dr. Parker had no title to convey, and that as a stockholder he could only transfer his own stock to the State. There is no power given to the Leg- islature of any State by the Constitution of the United States by which it can authorize the board of trustees of a corporation to give the property of its stockholders to a State, to a corporation, or to an individual. I also told Governor Fenton that I was a stockholder in the corpora- tion of the Inebriate Asylum, and had never been noti- fied that it was the intention of Dr. Parker and his asso- ciated trustees to give the Asylum proper to the State of New York. The conveyance of the Asylum projierty to the State was a nefarious act, and the State of New York was a party to the act when she received the deed, and no law or act of her Legislature can make such a deed a legal instrument. General Martindale also said to the writer. Dr. Parker, and Mr. Louis Seymour applied to me while I was Attorney-General of the State, in 1867, to prosecute the indictment against you, the founder, I declined to have any thing to do with the case, as I believed it to be a wicked scheme. HON. SAMUEL B. RUGGLES' TRANSFER OF STOCK AND HIS STATEMENT. The Hon. Samuel B. Ruggles, an ex-trustee of the Inebriate Asylum, transferred his Asylum stock to the founder, and made a subscription of ten dollars for the purpose of securing the vested rights of its stockholders, and in the year 1871 he made a subscription to the said Asylum to rebuild its rear buildings. In the year 1880 he subscribed to a fund to build and found a Woman's SAMUEL B. RUGGLES. 376 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. National Hospital for the medical treatment of inebriate women. Mr. Buggies related to the writer what he heard and said at Binghamton when he attended the meeting of the Asylum Board Oct. 15th, 1866. Dr. Parker stated to him on this occasion (among other things) that said Turner was an English adventurer, an infidel, a man without visible means of support; that he would be convicted of burning the north wing of the Asylum; and that this Institution would certainly be destroyed with such a man at its head. I cannot under- stand, said Dr. Parker, how Chancellor AValworth, ex-Gov. Hunt, ex-Judge McCoun, Judge Mullin, ex-Lieut. Gov. Campbell and the Hon. Charles H. Doolittle, can give such a man their confidence and their support. I replied to Dr. Parker, said Mr. Buggies, that it had been more than sixty days since the Board had appointed five of its ablest trustees to investigate all charges made in writing within fifteen days and filed with said com- mittee against any officer of said Institution; that the opponents of the founder had not made a charge and filed the same with the investigating committee up to date, as its chairman had stated under oath ; that the falsehoods Avhich seemed to be on the lips of the local trustees, had been poured into the ears of every non- resident trustee, trumpeted in the streets of Bingham- ton, heralded through the State, and scattered broadcast over the land; that such had been the weapons used by the enemies of the man who had created this Institu- tion, and invited us as his guests to co-operate with him in building up this work. On the 18th of May, 1877, Mr. Buggies gave his testimony before Commissioner Shields in the suit, now pending in the United States Circuit Court, instituted for the recovery of the property of the Asylum from HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 377 the State of New York. Mr. Buggies swore that he was a stockholder of the New York State Inebriate Asylum; that he had transferred his Asylum stock to the founder ; that he was a trustee in said Institution to June 6th, 1867 ; that as a trustee, or as a stockholder, he had never been notified to attend any meeting of the Board or a stockholder's meeting to pass upon a plan to sell the property of said Asylum to the State; that the transfer of the j>roperty to the State had been made without his knowledge or consent. When in 1S7i> Mr. Ruggles made his subscription to the Woman's National Hospital he remarked that as a lawyer he held that the trustees appointed by the State were individually responsible to the stockholders of the Asylum for all its rentals and depreciations, and it was the opinion of some of the ablest lawyers that the estates of deceased trustees could be held responsible for the rents and damages of the Asylum; that in this view of the case, there seemed to be a great hardship resting upon the State trustees who are made defendants in this suit, especially so when the Attorney-General of the State refuses to appear in their behalf; that if the State claims the property of the Asylum under the illegal deed, its Attorney-General should appear in court and defend its rights; that nothing short of this policy can the State of New York afford to endorse; that the trick of keeping the Attorney-General out of the suit so as to prolong the litigation and tire out the friends of the Institution, is a manipulation to which only a Tombs lawyer would resort in a weak and desperate case. Every good citizen, said Mr. Buggies, will condemn the policy of the State in prolonging this uncalled for litigation. Among the stockholders are a large number of the most distinguished citizens of the United States, besides five hundred poor 378 HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. clergymen whose individual estates might inventory a few hundred old sermons and a hundred or more well selected books. Should not the Empire State in its power and wealth protect the property of these five hundred poor clergymen, as, in the year 1862, it did pro- tect the rich bond-holders in their rights when they demanded gold at two hundred premium to pay the principal and interest of her bonded debt? No man did so much in his official capacity to preserve the honor of the State, and to prevent the fraud of paying its bond- holders in a depreciated currency as Comptroller Bob- inson, and yet this very gentleman when governor refused the stockholders a hearing through their attorney, Hon. William H. Arnoux, before he signed the law which abolished the Inebriate Asylum, abrogated its contract for free beds, confiscated its property, and changed this most needed Asylum into a macl-house for the incurably insane. HON. HENRY R. MYGATT?S TRANSFER OF STOCK AND HIS STATEMENT. On the 24th of July, 1872, the Hon. Henry B. Mygatt, an ex-trustee of the Asylum, transferred eleven shares of his Asylum stock to the founder, and made a subscrip- tion of ten dollars to a fund for securing the legal rights of the stockholders. Mr. Mygatt stated that in the year 1869 he was employed by the Commissioners of the Land Office of the State to enjoin Mr. William B. Osborn, the Treasurer of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, from paying over to his successor in office all monies in his hands belonging to the Corporation of said Asylum. In the suit it was proven that the State of New York had no interest in said Corporation either as a stockholder or as a contributor to its fund. The conditions on which the counties of the State had contributed the ten per for value received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and Kv these presents do laTgaip' sell. ass»gnvand transfer unto J. Edward Turner, Wilton. Connecticut,......^■»*-^^V«r/! .——,. ..Share J of Capital Stock of the New York State Inebriate Asym;m. _~A-c _Alv« 5 **'**%_*. ****!+jls ml Standing in V%**1 ..-'""- name, on the Books of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and do hereby constitute and appoint said .7 Edward Turner, ***** true and lawful Attorney irrevocable for *••»*■ and in **A*J name and stead,1 to his own use, to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any part of the said Stock, and for. that purpose 'to make and execute all uecessary acts of Assignment and Transfer and one or more persons to substitute with like full power, hereby ratifying and confirming all that......%•**! ...said Attorney or substitute or substitutes shall lawfully do by virtue hereof ,|lt MjllIC&S tajytruOf. -•■■v.^-*-, have hereunto set %*«• *!..y\ for value received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these presents do bargain, sell, assign and transfer unto J Edward Turner/originator and/founder of New York State Inebriate Asylum/ of Wilton, Connecticut,..........._______.........-—............fiplA—* -......Share of the Capital Stock of the New York State Inebriate Asylum,......._.....-.....--------~......-....................._.'.......---------.-----—---- standing in -/fa**___name, on the Books of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and do hereby constitute and appoint said J. Edward Turner,....."^ty - -true and lawful Attorney irrevocable for...^CfcP and ia.../^U-y.........name and stead, to his own usa^to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any part aid Sfc**K, of the said SifecK, and for that purpose to make and execute all necessary acts of Assignment and Transfer, and one or more persons to substitute with like full power, hereby ratifying and confirming bstuute or substitutes shall lawfully do by virtue hereof nd sea all that....../TtMf said Atto |n WK^ysrofempf,...... Sealed and delivered in have hereunto set . s/%\a^s<^L....hand ■CC^U^trj >*>one thousand eight hundred and tht fifL0JN! O/a. A-&. y~ tor value received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these presents do hnnmin «n New York State. IhebmItbTst^ZZII^IZZ...........-- °f '^ °*pi^ St°°k °f th* ^ « *»-f7 ; / " SUb8titUteor 8ubstitut<* shall lawfully do by vLe hereof * j^ziS'* and vnfflMjr, — name and stead, to his own uafe, to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any pact of the sa\p^3tock, and for tbat purpose to make snd execute all necessary acts of Assignment and! Transfer, and one or more persons to substitute with like full power, Hereby: ratifying and confirming all toAljfoilf—.....said Attorney or substitute or substitutes shall lawfully do by virtue hereof. 3" SRjftrSS tofctTtlrf,.__^Jh........._.......__...have hereunto set_/^*T&£^------Jiand and seal they /e-t*i*Z>, £<-f6Jt2L...~ day •A 0*^*1—*-^— -----one thousand ej^nt hundred An&d-€&£*^£frM-^~tU^<^ Sealed and delivered in the prmenee of y^ // rffg^£e>£/ J fltfiw ail ^§lett b]® tkt&t jf^rtBiittjB, that for value received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these presents do bargain, sell, assign and transfer unto J. Edward Turner^originator and founder of New York State Inebriate AsylumS of Wilton, Connecticut,..........................................(UAAJL=-*---------«............Share of the Capital Stock of th/ New York State Inebriate Asvlum,_____.........______.___ standing in .JV\AA|.____name, on the Books of the New York State'Inebriate Asylum, and do hereby, constitute^and appoint said J. Edward Turner,... MAXj ... true and lawful Attorney irrevocable for-Vx- ftnd ln.....^*^\...........name and stead, to his own use/to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any part of the said Stock, and for that purpose to make and execute all necessary acts of Assignment and Transfer, and one or more persons to substitute with like full power, hereby ratifying and confirming 0,1 that t,^/U-j said Attorney or substitute or substitutes shall lawfully do by virtue hereof |H fflitlttSS MmQl,. .....J..... have hereunto set...........1/^-1/ -hand and seal the, _----------:L.2T"_- day of.........Qj^JJSlIua/ one thousand eight hundred and SjUSJlUL CWvfO Seated and delivered in the preserver of (ft) i^iAJSL^ ^\ dJLuULUJL\JbLZ~ 390 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. into shares of ten dollars each, and shall be deemed personal property, and transferable in such a manner as the said Asv- lum shall by by-laws direct, and the said Asylum shall be deemed fully organized, and may commence business when ten per cent of its capital is paid in." •' Sec. 5. On the first Monday of each year fifty per cent of the income of said institution shall be appropriated to the exclusive purpose of supporting poor and destitute inebriates and their families. The remaining fifty per cent shall be a fund to be appropriated for the payment of interest on the capital stock of said Asylum, (which shall in no case exceed seven per cent,) and other incidental expenses." TRANSFER OF ASYLUM STOCK BY THE RIGHT REV. HORATIO POTTER, D. D., LL. D., HIS REMARKS AND LETTERS. Bishop Potter transferred his Asylum stock to the founder, June 20th, 1873; in the same year made a sub- scription of ten dollars to a fund to rebuild its rear buildings; and, in 1880, made a subscription of ten dol- lars to a fund to build and found a "Woman's National Hospital for the medical treatment of inebriate women. The venerable bishop's interest in behalf of the Inebriate Asylum began more than thirty years ago, as the follow- ing letter will testify: New York, 33 West 24th Street, Jan. 22d. 1856. To Dr. J. Edward Turner. Dear Sii-:—I have to thank you for a copy of your publi- cation on the subject of the '" United States Inebriate Asylum." The undertaking is a most interesting and important one, and, properly conducted, will be the means of relieving avast amount of misery and accomplishing avast amount of good, which could be done in no other way so well, if at all. Such an Institution has indeed long been in the thoughts of most reflecting persons, who have had occasion to give much atten- tion to the subject of Intemperance. At the proper time, I shall be happy to enroll myself among the subscribers, and wishing you all success. I remain very truly yours, H. POTTER. THAT sftiflw all g|ta H ***** fwBfjtts. for value received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these-presents do bargain sell assign and transfer unto J. Edward Turner, Wilton, Connecticut-(^Vt ^ < Share of, tl>-' -< Capital Stock of the New York State Tnebbiatk Asylum.^___ _____„._______ standing in. ^VW^.,.name, on the Books of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and do hereby constitute and appoint said J. Edward Turner, VWy true and lawful Attorney irrevocable forjVVS< and "1-^W^.Mine and stead, to his own use, ft) sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any part of the said Stock, and for that purpose .to make and execute all necessary acts of Assignment and Transfer, and one or more persons to substitute.with like full power, hereby ratifying andxjonfirming all that....T, rW>^ said Attorney or substitute of substitutes shall lawfully do by virtue hereof. 1» MillUSS to^Wf, _. f) have hereunto set /k*a.v-„„hand and seal the OvuvVW—■ ■■■- ^y of ......^Ct^^ one thousand eight-hundred and. jtw^v-^ tC33 Seated and delivered in the presence of 001'MAtiXcAt^-, \)jAJv^^^ ieugv iii iti THAT cT^^W^ ^L^L> Qtr^t+^.yyy' lot value received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these presents do bargain, sell, ussign and transfer unto J. Edward Turner, ^riginator and founder of New York State Inebriate Asylum of Wilton, Connecticut,............................... ^%-*-^..........---------........ Share of the Capital Stock of the New York State Inebriate Asylum,..........................„....._..„___________________________^________ standing in ***&*+*><.—aame, on the Books of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and do hereby constitute and appoint said J. Edward Turner,.. jRftf^ true and lawful Attorney irrevocable for______ aQd i«J-.....^*^<.......name and stead, to his own use^.to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any part of the said Stock, and for that purpose to make and execute all neceseary acts of Assignment and Transfer, and one or more persons to substitute with like full power, hereby-ratifying and confirming o" that.....<0fiU**.....said Attorney or substitute or substitutes shall lawfully do by virtue hereof/ |n W\\nW tojimof„_ ^C^l ...„........have hereunto set ^/tfft?*^:.hand and seal tbe ~V-............-••-..... day of JG*<#f****£z~*?{.-^ox\Q thousand eight hundred and -§e$led and detivwed in the presence of HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 393 That Bishop Potter's interest has never abated, his second letter to the founder, and his several continued subscriptions will demonstrate. In looking through the subscription books, and in examining particularly the transfers of stock made by the following distinguished clergymen, Bishop Potter remarked that it must be a great satisfaction to one who had labored so long and so faithfully in the work of founding the Inebriate Asylum to have had through good and through evil report such men's confidence and support. The transfers referred to are those of Right Rev. Bishop G. T. Bedell, D. D., LL. D., Bishop of Ohio, Right Rev. Bishop Henry B. Whipple, D. D., LL. D., Bishop of Minnesota, Right Rev. Bishop R. J. White- house, D. D., LL. D., Bishop of Illinois, Rev. William A. Muhlenburg, D. D., Rev. W. Adams, D. D., Rev. Samuel Cook, D. D., Rev. R. S. Howl and, D. D., Rev. Thomas A. Eaton, D. D., Rev. R, S. Storrs, D. D., Rev. Thomas E. Vermelye, D. D., Rev. T. W. Chambers, D. D., Rev. W. R. Williams, D. D., Rev. Edward Lathrop, D. D., Rev. Ray Palmer, D. D., Rev. George S. Prentiss, D. D., and Rev. George S. Hare, D. D. TRANSFER OF ASYLUM STOCK BY THE REV. WILLIAM A. MUHLENBERG, D. D., FOUNDER OF ST. LUKE'S HOSPITAL, NEW YORK, AND HIS STATEMENT. The Rev. William A. Muhlenberg, D. D., transferred his Asylum stock to the founder Dec. 4th, 1872, made a subscription to the fund to rebuild the rear buildings of the Asylum, and, in the year 1870, subscribed ten dollars to found and build a Woman's National Hospi- tal for the medical treatment of inebriate women. This distinguished philanthropist stated to the writer that it was more than thirty years since he was one of a party 394 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. of gentlemen at the house of Dr. John W. Francis, when for the first time he heard the importance of an inebri- ate asylum discussed. Dr. Valentine Mott ably argued that such an asylum was needed for the medical treat- ment of the drunkard, and that in his opinion such a hospital was founded on a greater necessity than the insane asylum. In its pathological treatment it would radically cure ten of its patients where the lunatic asy- lum now cures but one, and that by such a hospital, society would protect itself against a more dangerous class than the insane who are now confined in our mad- houses. Judge Oakley and Dr. Francis held the same opinion with Dr. Mott, but the Rev. Dr. Cutler and Dr. Kissam disagreed with Dr. Mott's views, and expressed their belief that the drunkard is morally degraded, and that the church should be the moral hospital to reform him, and that the prison should punish him. In the year 1858, said Dr. Muhlenberg, Dr. Francis sent me a pamphlet containing his address delivered at the laying of the corner-stone of the New York State Inebriate Asylum. In 18(11 Dr. Mott sent me a pam- phlet containing his inaugural address delivered before the Board of Trustees of the Asylum, and I have received twelve pamphlets issued in behalf of the Asy- lum. These documents contain the history of a work of no small magnitude, and of no small interest to the human family. A few days after Dr. Mott had been elected the fourth time President of the Inebriate Asylum, he hon- ored me with a call at St. Luke's Hospital, when he stated he had been President of the Asylum for three years, and that he considered it a great honor. It is now a score of years, said Dr. Mott, since we met at Dr. Francis' house, No. 1 Bond St., and discussed the impor HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 395 tance of inebriate asylums; excepting ourselves, all oi the company present on that interesting occasion, have passed away, and we two are the only survivors who have been permitted to live to see the Asylum so far completed as to have received patients, and to have dis- charged them from its wards cured. Another interest- ing fact connected with the meeting at No. 1 Bond St., is that the gentlemen opposed to the idea of inebriate asylums became subscribers to its funds and friends to its cause. My old friend, James W. Beekman, ex-trustee of the Inebriate Asylum, stated to -me that if Dr. Mott had lived five years longer the Asylum would have been endowed to-day with more than a million dollars. I am convinced that no hospital had more friends than this pioneer work. My friend, Mr. John David Wolfe, became very much interested in the New York State Inebriate Asylum by seeing patients in the Blooming- dale Insane Asylum, of which he was a trustee. Mr. Wolfe had at one time decided to endow five free beds in the Inebriate Asylum, but the sale of the property to the State for the consideration of one dollar pre- vented him from consummating his plan. The difficul- ties, continued Dr. Muhlenberg, which must have met the founder at every point in his new work of founding the Womans' National Hospital for the medical treat- ment of inebriate women, must have increased his labors a hundred fold by his being compelled to prove himself inno- cent of charges of bigamy, arson, embezzlement and theft, which had been coined and circulated against him. If I had been so misrepresented by the trustees of the St. Luke's Hospital, it would not have had a single dol- lar for its endowment, or a single patient in its wards. t| ttitBt ^XtBtntS, THAT for value received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these presents do bitrgain, sell, assign and transfer unto J. Edward Turner, Originator and founder of New York State Inebriate Asylum/ of Wilton, Connecticut,................C?3rL£-.......«._"................................................„................>.....Share of the Capital Stock of the NeQYork State Inebriate Asylum,........_...................................______................................ standing in /ywv---name, on the Books of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and do hereby constitute and appoint said J. Edward Turner, fOO^U^ ..true and lawful Attorney irrevocable for S)Vl^ and \ny2Kvy_........- name and stead, to his own us^to sell, assign, transfer and set overall or any part of the said g/oek, and for that purpose to make and execute all necessary acts of Assignment and Transfer^and one or more persons to substitute*with 4ike full power, hereby ratifying and confirming all that//>fcV.....„ said Attorney i.r substitute or substitutes shall lawfully do by virtue hereof 111 ffltitKHS tofetfMf.,^^._„........have hereunto set ./>VlyU____... hand and seal thr ■ •—2» 9-.-..W**----,. day of~-,Jf?&€st «-£_»...-„—.— .one thousand eigfitJhundred and^£%WAt//{~$tsu^ Seated and delivered m the presevxe or tf ^ve-u^j &?. ySa^cfc<_P _. yjwer, hereby ratifying and confirming all that_i>^)&L—_ ...said attorney Or substitute or substitutes shall lawfully do by virtute.hereof ^ [n STltnm tojrrtflf,™.^...........^kave hereunto set_..........<2t^ , ...........hand and seal the ^/*%^lday of—ts&d&z^f . .one thousand eight hundred and-j^C^CJ^i^L ^C^ZZt ed and delivered in the p'eseiuie of (Q. ^aoxd^z /&«*? $^Lz& 400 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. heard in all its straggles and conflicts in which my aid has been solicited. There were but a few brave and noble men enlisted in its cause before I had joined its rank and file,—a Mott, a Francis, a Butler, a Walworth, and a McCoun were among the very first and foremost in its work. I have survived them all, and I have seen the institution which they all loved so much and served so well, captured, plundered, sold and destroyed by their successors. THE TRANSFER AND STATEMENT OF PROF. ROSWELL D. HITCHCOCK. D. D., LL. D. Prof Hitchcock became interested in the founding of the United States Inebriate Asylum in 1855. Made an address in the same year at the Broadway Tabernacle. Made a subscription to its capital stock in 1856, and paid for the same in 1858. Made a subscription in 1872 to a fund to rebuild its rear buildings; transferred his Asylum stock to the founder in the same year. Made a subscription to found a Woman's National Hos- pital for the medical treatment of inebriate women, and paid his subscription in 1881. When the Professor transferred his Asylum stock, he stated to the founder that he was advised by friends in 1855 not to make an address in behalf of the Inebriate Asylum, as it would never be organized or built and the movement would be a failure and his valuable time wasted. I have never regretted, continued the Professor, the time, voice or money which I have appropriated in behalf of this pio- neer Asylum. I have lived to see it built, organized and made a success under its great President, Valentine Mott, and have witnessed its destruction and death under Dr. Mott's successor. (Transfer of Prof. Hitch- cock in court.) THAT 7 for value received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, apd by these presents do batfahi, sell assign and transfer unto J. Edward Turner, of Wilton, ConneotI«t,.(the origi^r and founder^ New' York.State Inebriate Asylum,)___...._.._ CT\^—A^/ «k." e .u r, ^ i-B . 1 " —----—'-.....~...........—SJ.**.**:..im*S. Share of the Capital Stock of the "New Yotk Stale Inebriate Asylum,".._„„.,______ standing in ^Uy . ..name , oi. the Books of the New York State Inebriate Asyh**, and de hereby constitute and appoint said J. Edward Turne^y^^true and Im*! "AttorneyIrrevocable for (U-^.and in fk^^y ofcme and stead, to his own us/to sell, a.sigD, transfer, and set over ftll or an* part of the said StocKfand for that purpose to make and execute,.all necessary acts of Assignment and Transfer, and one or more persons to substitute with like full power, hereby ratifying and confirming all H>at s ^. / •>? yy^-^p^y^^ ^ for value received, have bargained, sold, Assigned and transferred, and by these presents do bargain, sell, assign and transfer unto J. Edward Turn* of Wilton, Connecticut, _ . —-.......— New York State Inebriate Asylum, assign and transfer unto J. Edward Turner/originator* and founder of New York State Inebriate Asylum) of Wilton, Connecticut, _...................___-.......----—^^—— -.......!H?L.Share of the Capital Stock of the standing in ....... .^^y^— name, on the Books of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and do hereby constitute and appoint said J. Edward Turner,........tAs*.......... name and stead-, to his own use, to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any part of the "said Stock, and for that purpose to make and execute all necessary acts of Assignment and Transfer, and one or mofe persons to substitute with like full power, hereby ratifying and confirming all-that...../Ct-V.......said Attorney <^............................,........... Share of the Capital Stock of the New York State Inebriate Asylum................................................................................................. standing in ,^^->j true and lawful Attorney irrevocable for ft^. * and in....frvrv^r........name and stead, to his own use, to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any part of the said Stock, and for that purpose to make and execute all necessary acts of Asa;gnment and Transfer, and one or more persons to substitute with like full power, hereby ratifying and confirming all that.......# ...T-aay of...........C; ££T^z ^tc^ £*C^f ^^^^c^^^/ for value received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these presents do bargain, sell, assign and transfer unto J. Edward Turner, of Wilton; Connecticut, (*he originator and founder of New York State Inebriate Asylum,)--------------^V«_£...........................-----......-Share of the Capital Stock of the " Neva York State Inebriate Asylum"____.___.____„..„,..______._________..................._............______..._JW_ standing in.—.>uy .name , on the Books of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and do hereby constitute and appoint said J. Edward Turner,......t^^^r.^lruH and lawful Attorney irrevocable for *v*-*~ and in .. «%<«-»-w.......name and stead, to his own use, to sell, assign, transfer, and set over all or any part of the said-Stock, and for that purpose to make and execute all necessary acts of Assignment and Transfer, and one or inoi'e persons to substitute with like full power, hereby ratifying and confirming all that__**•- y..........siid Attorney, or substitute or substitutes, shall lawfully do by virtue hereof. J|n SBtitntSS tojftrfHf,.....kA-----have hereunto set—/"U>^......hand and seal the.......^ 5 .^Z... day of ^4*v»-*»„.....UJ,.one thousand eight hundred and..r~»SF asement of the Hospital building should be completed. The first call of the writer upon Mr. Phelps was not referred to. for value received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these presents do bargain, sell assign and transfer unto J. Edward Turner, £m»atof and founder of New York State Inebriate ASylunv of Wilton, Connecticut------.......L (?£*>** _.^~—..„ A ShareS"of the Capital Stock of the , New York State Inebriate AsYLuk.............................................,....... '' standing id......&*?& .name, on the %oks of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and do hereby constitute aA(L-ap|pnft said:J. Edward Turner, ***& true and lawfuj Attorney irrevocable for <£& andi,B.rf?.A«^A^.... na«$ aftd steady his Own usj/to sell, assign,, transfer and set" oyer all or any part of the said S(&$jg£ andjptha,t purpose to make .and execute all necessary acts o^,Assignment-and1 Transfer, and due or moVe persons to subacute wffc litre full power, hereby ratifying and conforming altyhijt... *^W---saidjAttorne* or substitute or substitutes shall lawfully do by virtue hereof •&n V^m^j^j - ■■*?».fl 4 ' h>ve hereuuto set C^f.?.............hand wd seal the. :.... lA^Mj^lSM^t^ day of. (^KX these fMsnns,™*? /. #>c£Z, 4^\U&yT6.JaLU.j.'} uU*uU*J and do hereby constitute and appoint -^E-CL^-tL- (Zf'£-'£>& lrZL>4-£^ ^St^U^*^*/** /)'fa\7/ true and lawful Attorney irrevocable. ^"V*C>.... for and in. ■ to /l4/i/H/vc-use, to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any part of th purpose to make and execute all necessary acts of Assignment and Trans" to substituie with like full power, hereby ratifying and confirming all ' or substitute or substitutes shall lawfully do by virtute"hereof ,^_|lt (SlitimsXimof, ... J>............... have hereunto set Sealeiljiind delivered ui the presence offf name and stead, took ;md for that or more persons said attorney j&t^z^yC HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. All THE TRANSFER OF ASYLUM STOCK BY PETER COOPER, FOUNDER OF COOPER INSTITUTE, NEW YORK, AND HIS STATEMENT. Mr. Cooper transferred his Asylum stock to the writer May 24th, 1872, made a subscription of ten dol- lars to a fund to defrav the expenses in litigating the legal rights of the stockholders, in 1873 subscribed ten dollars to a fund to rebuild the rear buildings, and in 1877 subscribed ten dollars in t!ie name of his daughter, Mrs. Sarah A. Hewitt, to found a Woman's National Hospital for the medical treatment of inebriate women. Mr. Cooper first became interested in the work of estab- lishing the proposed Inebriate Asylum in 1853, before its charter was granted, and was one of the original sixty- nine subscribers, who were convinced that such a hospital was needed for the medical treatment of the drunkard. Mr. Cooper stated to the writer at the time of making his subscription for his daughter, that he had often talked with his old friend and neighbor, Dr. Mott, upon the importance of having the Asylum's management contin- ued in accord with the policy of its founder. Said the doctor to me on one of these occasions, my only fear for the future success of the Asylum (which seems so bright to-day) is that intermedcllers will sneak into its organiza- tion under the guise of pretended friendship, and when in power will deplete its revenues to its death. To pre- vent this shipwreck the plan which I have suggested seems to me to be the most just and practical one, that is, to make the founder a stockholder to the amount of the value of his past services and the money he has expended in creating the Asylum. I then stated to the doctor that no honorable stockholder could object to his resolutions, which not only guarantee justice to the man who has done this work, but at the same time wrould 27 /"S 418 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. preserve the policy which has created it. As a stock- holder in the corporation I would vote for your resolu- tions and at the same time I would transfer my Asylum stock as a gift to the founder. I am convinced that ninety-nine of the stockholders in a hundred would vote for your resolutions, and would also transfer their Asy- lum stock as a donation to the founder. I have lived, continued the venerable philanthropist to the writer, more than fourscore years and ten, and have witnessed what Dr. Mott's prophetic words foretold in 1862, that, if the Asylum should fail to be just to its founder, Judas Iscariots would creep into its organization, perhaps mor- ally destroy its founder, betray the Asylum's interest, and sell it for a few pieces of silver. WILLIAM CULLEX BRYAXT*S TRAXSFER OF ASYLUM STOCK AXD HIS STATEMEXT. Mr. William Cullen Bryant transferred his Asylum stock to the founder Dec. 22nd, 1873, made a subscrip- tion of ten dollars to rebuild its rear buildings, gave ten dollars to a fund to assist in paying the expenses of liti- gating the rights of the stockholders, and made another subscription in 1878 to a fund to found and build a Womans' National Hospital for the medical treatment of inebriate women. Mr. Bryant stated to the founder that his old friend, Judge McCoun, gave him a history of Dr. Parker's opera- tions in selling the Asylum property to the State for one dollar, and of his paying two of his trustee*, Mr. Birds- all and Mr. Danforth, ($5,000) five thousand dollars for a few days work at Albany. The judge also remarked to me, said Mr. Bryant, that although himself a trustee and a stockholder in the Corporation, Dr. Parker did not inform him at any time, either before or after the charter day, that he had deeded the Asylum property to the our all g§m || these jf rmntiB, that for value received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these presents do bargain, sell. assign and transfer unto J. Edward Turner/originator and founder of New York State Inebriate Asylum of Wilton, Connecticut,.....„..<**tft^V:r,..„...........----............._----------Share „,■ the c jta, Stock of ^ New Yobk State Inehriate Asylum,.. standing in .^♦w^""" name, on the Books of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and do hereby constitute and ap^Sint said J. Edward Turner,£*H«>/"t7ue and lawful Attorney irrevocable for OtUiJ and in^a*^tr^7name and stead, to his own u/( to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any part of the said#ook, and for that purpose to make and execute all necessary acts of Assignment and Transfer, and oneoj^more persons m substitute with like full power, hereby ratifying and confirming all that^^Ta-v^ ,^.said Attorney or substitute or substitutes shall lawfully do by vitthe hereof jit MitlUSS \&\m^ _jj ______„have hereunto set . £>»c^V hand an(J Sea, OUHAt&yiCa&u^i day oL(^.4jC4*4*ykG^—-~!bne thousand ciglt hundred and Seated and delivered in the presence ot 420 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. State of New York, and that this nefarious act on the part of Dr. Parker must always be regarded as an illegal act to which the State was a party. If, said he, such an act had been perpetrated upon a National Bank by its president, the United States Court would have punished the perpetrator. The great State of New York, said Mr. Byrant, can- not afford, under any circumstances, to.take my property illegally, and use that property for any purpose, not even for the greatest charity. Many of our sister States have through poverty been compelled to repudiate their bonds, but New York is the only State that has been wicked enough to be the receiver of ill-gotten goods, and protect the same by its Sovereignty. THE TRANSFER AND STATEMENT OF THE HON. E. F. SHANNARD, AN EX-TRUSTEE OF THE NEW YORK STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Mr. Shannard was one of the incorporators of the Inebriate Asylum and a trustee for more than ten years, and for eight years one of the most active and useful members of the building committee. Mr. Shannard transferred his Asylum stock to the founder in 1872, and then stated that Dr. Parker had sold the Asylum to the State of New York for the consideration of one dol- lar without his knowledge or consent. My brother-in- law, ex-Governor Seymour, stated to me that in the year 1854, he signed the law under which the Inebriate Asy- lum was organized. This new institution, the Governor remarked, had excited a stormy opposition in the legis- lature for three sessions. This opposition had prompted him to examine every section of the bill. I found, said the Governor, that its charter demanded nothing more than the privilege of building and founding an Inebri- ate Asylum, and to organize the same with a capital *yffjz? y* cy\y>M*........name and stead, to his own use/to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any patB- of'the said^tock, and for that purpose to make and execute all necessary acts of Assignment an<£ Transfer, and one or more persons to substitute with like full power, hereby ratifying and confirming all that.....fjMAf...........said Attorney or substitute or substitutes shall lawfully do by virtue hereof. |lt S&ttlttaS tofetniOff, ^yzZ.^ have hereunto set Qvty fo^ ..hand ™d seal th_e p—- . at lor value received; have bn^edjojd. assigned and ^^t^^^JE^U^^^^^ assign and transfer unto.s G^- ^-S**^-****--**—5*^ ^U^ and in -u*W—-nan.e and stead, to his ow/use, to sell, a~igo, transfer, and set over all.or any paTof "the said sZk, and for that purpose to **^d execute al. necessary acts of Assignment and CL nd one or more persons to substitute with .ike full power, hereby ratifying and connrmmg al. ikT^--^* Attorney, or substitute or substitutes, shall .awfu.ly do by virtue hereof ^itltttS to^tOf,^^—h-e hereunto set-_^-_hand^ 'and seal t day of..^«<^^—=-one thousand eiglrt hundred and Smed and delivered in the pretence of set-_<25fc^---hand an HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 427 THE TRANSFER OF THE ASYLUM STOCK OF PROFESSOR JAMES H. ARMSBY, M. D.. (FOUNDER OF THE ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE,) AND HIS STATEMENT. Professor James H. Armsby transferred his Asylum stock to the founder October 2d, 1872, and, at the same time, made a subscription of ten dollars to rebuild its rear buildings, stating to the writer that he had visited the Inebriate Asylum at Binghamton by an invitation of its superintendent, Dr. Dodge, (a former student of Pro- fessor Armsby), and that he was delighted with its beautiful location and its superb buildings. I was informed, said Professor Armsby, that the hospital was full, and that applicants were waiting for vacancies. I was introduced to a large number of the patients, and found among them more than a score of educated men belonging to the three learned professions. I was informed by Dr. Dodge that, in the year 1871, 315 patients were treated in the Asylum; that of the 230 discharged 184 were improved or cured, and 46 unim- proved; that during the year the Asylum had been a financial success; that the money received for the treat- ment of patients had been in excess of the expenditures; and that the whole number admitted and treated since the opening of the Asylum, May 1st, 1867, was 1,332. I remarked to Dr. Dodge that the number of patients treated from the year 1864 to the year 1867 was not reported in his statement, and that I had noticed that in all the Asylum reports made to the Secretary of State, the work during those years (1864-1867) was entirely ignored. He replied that Dr. Parker's instruction had been to make no reference to the past history of the Asylum. I have, said Dr. Dodge, a colored man named Brown in the employ of the Asylum who has given me much trouble, and I have been compelled to discharge him twice, but he has been re-instated by Dr. Parker. 428 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. He is the man whose testimony indicted the founder of the Asylum. He often amuses the patients by relating stories of villainy connected with the Asylum, of which he ousrht to be ashamed, and vet this colored man has to-day more influence with Dr. Parker than any officer of the institution. In visiting the different rooms of the Asylum, continued Professor Armsby, I could not find a record, a tablet, or a photograph of its four ex-presidents, or any of its ex-trustees who had by act or influence assisted to found the institution—these good men were all forgotten—but I did find the photograph and name of Dr. Parker placed upon the walls of the public rooms as well as upon those of the private apartments. (Dr. Armsby's transfer is in court.) TRANSFER OF STOCK BY THEODORE L. MASON, M. D., PRESI- DENT OF FORT HAMILTON INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Dr. Mason transferred his Asylum stock to the founder July 29th, 1873, and made a subscription of ten dollars to a fund to rebuild the Asylum's rear buildings, stating at the time, that he well remembered calling upon Dr. Mott in 1864, and consulting him about the proper restraint which should be used in controlling the inebriate while under medical treatment in a hospital. Dr. Mott replied, said Dr. Mason, by stating that the control over the inebriate should be as thorough as that now exercised over the suicidal cases of insanity in our luna- tic asylums; that the honor of the patient should be ignored and never taken under any circumstances; that the drunkard will have relapses upon his honor and upon his pledges; that he is a subject of disease as truly as if he were laboring under small-pox or any other malady. A year's medical treatment and control over the patient in a well organized hospital will, I think, said Dr. Mott, cure fifty per cent of its patients, while, HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 429 if the honor of the patient be the only controlling power, not ten per cent could be cured. In the year 1870 Dr. Mason procured from the writer thirty-nine letters written in the year 1866 by the superintendents of the insane asylums of America. These letters were the embodiment of the professional opinions of thirty-nine of the most experienced physi- cians connected with the insane asylums of the United States and the British Possessions in relation to the medical treatment of the inebriate in asylums. The fol- lowing will serve as a fair specimen of the letters received from these celebrated specialists: Illinois State Hospital for the Insane, Jacksonville, September 8th, 1866. Dr. J. Edward Turner. Dear Sir:—Your esteemed favor of the 24th ult. and also your report were duly received, but came at the busy time incident to the closure of our quarterly affairs, and thus its answer has suffered some delay. Having had charge of two State insane asylums, where there was nothing in either worth the name of an inebriate asylum, I have known something of the Dipsomaniac in his relations to an institution. I reply in brief to each of your questions—and. indeed, one answer compasses the desired fact in the whole—and then will give my views on the subject at greater length. Ans. 1. I do not believe the proper inmate of an inebriate asylum requires, for his safe keeping, any less restraint than is provided for the chronic insane. (I believe he requires much more.) Ans. 2. I have not found that the Dipsomaniac needs any less watchfulness than what must be exercised over the chronic insane. (In fact he needs infinitely more.) Ans. 3. I can trust to the honor of an insane man, be his disease acute or chronic, with far more assurance of safety than to that of the inebriate. 430 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Ans. 4. I should regard stringent custodial rules, bonds, and limits as equally necessary and vital in an asylum for inebriates as in an asylum for the insane. A false idea in regard to the inebriate has got possession of the public mind, and I am not surprised that it should embarrass you, as 1 infer it has, from the tenor of your inquiries. The prevailing idea seems to be that the drunkard is really a nobler man than his fellows who prosairally keep sober; that these noble attributes only need to be unlocked from a temporary enthrallment by a sort of legerdemain— which nobody exactly defines—and that the noble instincts which have been held in abeyance will vindicate their natural supremacy over those "unfortunate addictions'' by which the subject has been made a victim. This utterly false idea is, I presume, the emanation of the multitude of Washingto- nian lecturers—reformed drunkards—who perambulate the country, making themselves out something nobler than men who never wallowed in the gutter. They seem to have been successful in throwing round a vice the mantle of a misfor- tune, and to have caused the public to look on an inebriate asylum as the place where salve is kept for such stricken natures. All my experience of those inebriates who have passed beyond the control of family and society is, that nothing less than stringent custodial measures—equally stringent with those provided for the insane—will be of per- manent use; and that such measures, relaxed only on the most certain assurances, will alone make an inebriate asylum a real success in the reformation of the class for which it is designed. Not among the least of the ruins caused by habits of inebriety is, the wreck of the sentiment of truth and honor, so often perceived by those conversant with the class in ques- tion, and which renders a physical restraint an absolute essential in treatment. Very truly yours, AXD. McFARLAND. In conversation with Dr. Mason in the year 1881, he said to the writer: It will take forty years or more to educate public opinion to the point that the inebriate HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 431 asylum can have the same control over its patients as the insane asylum. My humble opinion is, that the change of management at the Binghamton Asylum from Dr. Mott's positive policy of control over its patients, to Dr. Parker's drifting policy of putting the patient upon his honor, has retarded our special work twenty-five years. Another great mistake was the illegal transfer of its property to the State of New York; this fatal error has prevented endowments being made to establish free beds in its wards. The repudiation of all laws which relate to the commitment of inebriate patients by the courts, and of the rules and regulations made in accord with such laws to control the patient while under its medical treatment, has impaired the confidence of medi- cal men in its management. The manipulations of the ring which has exhausted a large amount of its funds for professional services and the traveling expenses of its trustees, have destroyed the confidence of all good men in its financial management, and made the institution odious in the sight of the world. In the same year, (1881), the writer called a second time on Dr. Mason, and informed him that the Legislature of the State of Connecticut had appointed him a trustee of the Woman's National Hospital, which trusteeship he accepted. Dr. Mason then said that the Fort Hamilton Inebriate Asylum had been so far a success financially, its income having always exceeded its expenditures; that the medical treatment of its patients had been very encouraging in its results; that the Hospital had been full—often more patients applying for admission than the Hospital could accommodate; that its accumu- lated fund would be applied in the near future to the enlargement and improvement of its buildings; and, that its Board of Trustees had never been compensated ',wtm all §f§£n Ig tlattit f£teftnt8,TBAT )%*~~ n &u*dh *f *44(~~^~A\ for value received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these presents do bargain, sell, awftgn and transfer unto J. Edward Turner, "Wilton, Connecticut,..........tfStUks.............................Share of the- Capital Stock of the New YdRK State Inebriate Asylum,................- -...............- -..................---------------- standing in.......y?c«y...............name, on the Books of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and do hereby conslUutecand appoint said J. Edward Turner,,/**•.......- true and lawful Attorney irrevocable for..,***-*. and in 4***..........name .and stead, to hie own use, to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any part of the saidStock,, and for that purpose to make and execute all necessary acts of Assignment and Transfer, and one or more persons to substitute with like full power, hereby ratifying and confirming all that.........st**z+ .....said Attorney or substitute, or substitutes shall lawfully do by virtue hereof. |tt flBitHMl tojjtrtllf, ......K......... have hereunto set.. ^t-^*~.---.......hand and seal the _____O,.....................day of___(s^i^—H ___one thousand efeht hundred and f *4» *,+ vd/~~ %f THAT ff tCAx. (ZaJt aaX. fbrvalue-.eceived, have" bargained, sold, assigned and transferred,^ by these presents do bargain sell assign and tran.sfer unto J. Edward Turner, Wilton, Connecticut,............iTYV^J Shaie of the Capital Stock of the New York State Inebriate Asylum ^^ ................bha'C °f the T^St m P^f :™?*> on the B°oks of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, and do hereby constuuteand appo,# sald J. Edward Turner,/^ true and lawful Attorney irrevocable for ^V of th^sSc!, Tf Ktead' l° HiS °Wn Tt0 SelK aSSiSn' traD8fer aDd"Set ov« a» or *»JP«~ of the saidftock, and for that purpose to ma& and-execute all necessary acts or Assignment and a Uhar^--6 "JZZT™ t0 lUbStitUte Wth 1,k6 fU" P-". ^eb^ ratifying andTnfirming.^ all tnaf../fl^........,9a,d Attorney or substitute or substitutes shall lawfully do by virtue hereof. /lit miktSS totymif, ..& s? have hereunto set /?Vt^^, u i A J iPyfnrxA it tyV—rX J. ' ?■ *. .*w^^r IZU Staled and delivered'in the presence of HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 443 his cups, and died but a few years before the Asylum was opened. From the time I had become interested in the Asylum, he said, I had made up my mind to endow this work with a free bed, but the illegal sale of the Asylum to the State by its President, Dr. Parker, has prevented me from consummating my intention. As soon as the stockholders are re-instated in their vested rights, and the Institution is rescued from the State Trustees, and organized under a Board of Management composed of directors who will give their time to the Hospital without charge, and who will pay their own traveling expenses, I will agree to establish two free beds in said Hospital. My friend, Judge Doolittle, of Utica, has given me an account of two meetings of the Board of Trustees held at Binghamton July loth, 1866, and September 11th, 1866. In speaking of these meetings he said that the resolution passed at a meeting of the Board, September 11th, 1866, repealing all the acts of the special meeting of the Board, July 10th, 1866, was a manoeuvre which would have put to blush the worst stock-gambler of the clay, and should challenge the con- demnation of every man in the land. No such proceed- ings could have been prompted and carried out by men of good hearts and intentions. After hearing Judge Doolittle's account and after learning what I did, when on a visit a few weeks since in New York, concerning Dr. Parker, who for twenty-two years has been receiving the rental of a hotel at fifteen thousand dollars a year, and also learning that he was lecturing upon Inebriety as a disease before Theological Schools and Colleges, and that he had recently made a temperance address at the Young Men's Christian Association, an institution located within five hundred feet of his noted hotel where the bill of fare advertises the choicest of wines 444 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. and the purest of liquors, I was read)' to believe that he was capable of committing any act however cruel or wicked, if that act was to advance his power or interest in manipulating the New York State Inebriate Asylum. I had the curiosity to visit the Ashland House with a friend. AYe inquired at the office to whom these premi- ses belonged, and the clerk informed us that the cele- brated surgeon, Dr. Willard Parker, was the owner. Having met Dr. Parker several times, I recognized his photograph hanging in the office. It was placed opposite the bar-room, where every one who patronized that department could see a very correct likeness of the Presi- dent of the first Inebriate Asylum in the world, and the founder of a hotel where choice wines and liquors were sold. The following is the ADDRESS OF WILLARD PARKER, M. D., LL. D., DELIVERED AT THE YOUNG MENS' CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION HALL, NEW YORK CITY. Ladies and Gentlemen:—Of all agents alcohol is the most potent in establishing heredity that exhibits itself in the destruction of mind and body. It transmits an appetite for strong drink in the children, and these are likely to have that form of drunkenness which may be termed paroxysmal; that is, they will go for a considerable period without indul- gence, until at last all barriers of self-control give way. The drunkard by inheritance is a more helpless slave than his progenitor, and the children he begets are more helpless still. Hereditary effects of drink are shown in insanity, idiocy, epilepsy, and other affections of the brain and nervous sys- tem. Pritchard and Esquirol, two srreat authorities on the subject, attribute one-half of the cases of insanity in Eng- land to the use of alcohol, and the same is probably true in this country. One-half of the idiots are of drunken parent- age. I have been acquainted with several men having bril- liant and cultivated minds who inherited the vice, and they have stated to me that there were times when the impulse to HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 445 drink strong liquor was irresistible, and that nothing had power to dissuade them from yielding to it. An instance of how a mother accustomed to the use of alcohol influenced her offspring, may be related from my own experience. A merchant in good circumstances came to me for medical advice. He was in the habit of getting intoxicated every night before retiring. His mother also drank habitually, and died of paralysis. He had two brothers and three sis- ters. The oldest brother died a paroxysmal drunkard. My patient was always in a state of mental discomfort, and was suspicious and jealous to the most unreasonable degree. The third brother and child died drunkards, and the fourth child, a sister, was an inmate of a lunatic asylum. The fifth child was intolerable on account of her eccentricity. The sixth child, also a woman, died of consumption. The second son, my patient, married a woman of fine physical and men- tal organization. They had two sons; the elder was asso- ciated with his father in business, and was an energetic man but very excitable, and although not an habitual drunkard, was a slave to his other animal appetites. The other child was in reality a moral idiot. Here, in spite of the restrain- ing influence of the fine mental and physical organization of the mother, we see the effects of alcohol cropping out in the third generation. We do not always see the worst effects of the hereditary influence of alcohol, because of the frequent mingling of good blood with that which is tainted. From my own observation, and the testimony of others, I am led to the conclusion that by far the larger share of mental dis- ease, poverty and crime, is the direct heritage of alcohol. It is also the cause of a great share of our bodily disease, and is shortening the average duration of life. * * * HON. JAMES W. BEEKMAN's STATEMENT AT THE TIME OF THE TRANSFER OF HIS ASYLUM STOCK TO THE FOUNDER. The Hon. James W. Beekman, a trustee in the Asy- lum for eight years, transferred his Asylum stock to the writer on the 23d of May, 1872, and also gave a subscrip- tion of ten dollars to a fund to pay the expenses of test- ing in the courts the rights of the stockholder to the JAMES W. BEEKMAN. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 447 property of said Hospital. Senator Beekman remarked that he well remembered the efforts of the late Dr. Mott in securing the unanimous action of the Board in passing the resolutions (passed December 10th, 1862,) to secure the recognition of the eighteen years services of the writer in founding said Inebriate Asylum. Dr. Mott's reason, said Senator Beekman, for securing the recogni- tion of the services of the founder, was not only justice to the man who had devoted his life to the object, and spent his substance in the cause, but to prevent selfish and dishonest men from worming themselves into the Board under false pretenses. Render exact justice to the founder, and you will secure and guarantee the future of the Asylum, said Dr. Mott, When Air. Danforth and myself were appointed by a resolution of the Board, December 19th, 1866, to select three hiirh minded gentle- men as referees to pass upon the founder's accounts, these words of the late Dr. Mott rang in my ears as prophetic of what had almost become true. I selected two experi- enced builders, Air. Dodcl, a stone mason, and Air. Black- stone, a carpenter. These gentlemen had contracted for and built some of the largest and most expensive build- ings in the city of New York, and were well qualified to estimate the cost of the Asylum at Binghamton. Air. Danforth selected an ex-judge from his county as the third referee, and this Referee Board went to Bingham- ton to examine the Asylum buildings, to estimate their cost, and to pass upon the founder's accounts. Dr. Par- ker and his associates would not allow the referees to hold a meeting or to make an estimate of the cost of the Asvlum buildings. He said it was all nonsense to allow the*se referees to estimate Turner's services, and then compensate him in Asylum stock. Such a plan would give Turner the control of the Institution, and the small miflMj all iluE pi thttt promts, that for value received, have bargauned, sold, assigned and transfer) ed, and by tnTse present^ dp bargain, sell, s? - assign and transfer jinto......e*%......2«<** C? 'antTilo hereby constitute and* appoint...M£t*^aC...^T.% I ^^<*r«^-r-.«)_ V^< cyifiy^. .true and lawful Attorney irrevocable.,...............................for and in...#3t^t^:... name and stead, to ^^...^tco^use, to sell, assign, transfer and set over all or any part of the sam stock, and for tmxt purpose to make and execute all necessary acts of Assignment and Transfer, and one or more persona to substitute wi4h-like fulKpowef; fiereby ratifying and confirming all that...z&s-fcw -said attorney or-.substitute or substitutes shall lawfully do,by virtute hereof.- / %tt SEitimS">to^tnflI>......tt/.......-........... have hereunto set........{jhUr*K*ts«rf...-............_.....hand and seal the___^ fStOAi^d^t^C&iii^L...... day of ...^...oft^..<■» —^„.........one thousand eight hundred and J%C4s*2>~?r^*!l~^Ccerd Sealed and delivered in the presence of / A ,, ' tffou>. ^^%^r^ (ZZZ?*L*~~<. &' /CU^l— HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 449 stockholders would be out-voted. If I have any influ- ence in the Board, said Dr. Parker, not a share of the Asylum stock shall Turner receive. Mr. Beekman then said that he stated to Dr. Parker that the resolutions passed by the Board, December 10th, 1862, secured for Dr. Turner the privilege of making a subscription to the capital stock of the Asylum to the full amount of his services; that his salary should be equal to the salary of the Superintendent of the State Insane Asylum at Utica with all his perquisites added thereto, and interest on all said salary up to date; and that Judge Doolittle had informed him by letter that he had inquired of two of the trustees of said Asylum at Utica in reference to the salary of Dr. Gray; that one of the trustees had esti- mated that Dr. Gray's salary, house rent, food, fuel, horses, carriages, and servants, would, if procured in the city of Utica, amount to more than $7,000; that the other trustee estimated the salary and perquisites of Dr. Gray at more than $7,500. In reply Dr. Parker said that this compensation with interest added would amount to more than two hundred thousand dollars; and that such an ownership of its stock would forever control the Asylum. We have concluded, said Dr. Parker, to get rid of Turner and all his friends in the Board; we shall then be untrammeled, and shall have an opportunity to build up a great Institution. Mr. Beekman replied that he did not think that the stockholders of the Asylum would endorse his—Dr. Parker's—policy, when the}^ became acquainted with the following facts: that out of an expenditure of $401,635.29 there were but two cents missing; that the Asylum was open about three years, and in that time the income exceeded the expenditure, including $10,000 paid for furnishing the wards of the asylum and for the support of six charity patients, by more 29 450 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. than $700; that not a death had occurred among its patients under the management of its founder; and that, besides all this, more than half of its patients were discharged cured; that the founder had rendered only one-half of the amount which he could have claimed under Dr. Mott's resolutions, and that one-tenth of the sum already rendered would satisfy the founder, that is $24,000 in stock. This last proposition was also declined by Dr. Parker, and he stated that, if he and his friends failed to remove Turner, and if the Institution was ever opened again under his—Turner's—management, every measure would be used to prevent patients from entering the Asylum, and if there were patients in the Hospital, every plan would be tried to demoralize its management. I remember, continued Mr. Beekman, the last meet- ing which I attended of the Executive Committee of the Asylum held at Dr. Parker's house, and at that time I heard Dr. Parker make a statement that the Hon. Benja- min F. Manierre, treasurer of the Excise board, had informed him that the founder had called upon him and had presented for payment a forged order for twenty-five thousand dollars. This order purported to have been signed by William R. Osborn, treasurer of the New York State Inebriate Asylum. The order, said Mr. Manierre, was not paid, as he regarded Turner as a very bad man, and he considered it safe not to pay it. The next morning after the Executive Committee had met at Dr. Parker's residence, I called upon the founder at the Brevoort House and related to him what Dr. Parker had stated before the Executive Committee. The founder replied to me that he had never attempted to chase down Dr. Parker's statements or to contradict them. But if he wished to find out the facts of the case, he would accompany him to Mr. Manierre's office. At our inter- HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 451 view with Mr. Manierre, continued Mr. Beekman, he said that he had never made such a statement to Dr. Parker or to any one else, and that such a statement was a fabrication, and not a word of truth in it. I left Mr. Manierre's office, said Mr. Beekman, and called on Dr. Parker and stated to him that I had seen the treasurer of the Excise board, and that he had stated to me that the founder had never presented to him for payment a forged order or any order. After Dr. Parker had heard my statement of what Mr. Manierre had said, he turned the conversation to another subject without giving one word of explanation for making such a statement. Soon after I called on Dr. Parker I saw Dr. Post, William E. Dodge, Richard Schell, Henry T. Tuckerman, and Henry Taylor, and informed these gentlemen, who were present at the meeting of the Executive Committee and heard Dr. Parker's statement, that I had seen Mr. Manierre, treasurer of the Excise board, and that he had stated to me that Dr. Parker's statement about the founder's call- ing on him with a forged order was a fabrication. Yet with all these contradictions of Mr. Manierre, this false- hood traveled over the State of New York, and was believed by a multitude of people, for the only reason that Dr. Parker was its author. As my name was on Dr. Parker's ticket and also on Judge Mullin's I was unanimously elected a trustee of the Inebriate Asylum July 21st, 1867. My old friend, Judo-e McCoun, was also elected under the same circum- stances, but I could not, although unanimously elected a trustee, serve in a board which had illegally adjourned the charter day of the corporation, because they had been surprised, and were without proxies to elect themselves. Neither could I associate with men who had declared to the world that they were more disinterested in their 452 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. motives, better equipped in all intellectual and moral qualifications to carry out the great mission of the Ine- briate Asylum than its founder, when at the same time they were inventing plans to disfranchise its stockhold- ers, to sell its property to the State, and to deplete its treasury by so-called professional services. TRANSFER OF ASYLUM STOCK BY NOAH WORRALL, EX- TRUSTEE, AND ONE OF THE INCORPORATORS OF THE ASYLUM. Mr. Worrall transferred his ten shares of Asylum stock to the founder May 20th, 1872, and made a sub- scription to a fund to rebuild its rear buildings. Mr. Worrall stated that in November, 1866, he called upon Dr. Willard Parker to persuade him to be honorable toward the founder, by carrying out Dr. Mott's resolu- tions* passed by the Board December 10th, 1862. Dr. Parker replied that what the Board proposed to do in 1862 in allowing Turner stock for his services, he did not think it expedient to carry out in 1866. I replied, said Mr. Worrall, that I thought the Institution had better lose the entire board of trustees than to lose its founder. My connection with the Asylum since its organization, my having served as one of the building committee since 1859, and my having known something of the work of planning the Asylum buildings, the hiring of its mechanics and workmen, the purchasing and begging of its materials, the procuring of its funds, the prompt payment of its debts, and the carrying out of its contracts, have given me a knowledge of the value of the services of the founder, which no other trustee pos- sesses. Under these circumstances to preserve the Insti- tution from future destruction by men who are ignorant * See page 173. NOAH WORRALL. 454 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. of all its wants, I am willing to pay five hundred dollars for your two shares of stock, provided you will resign your trusteeship and presidency of the corporation, and I will also increase my own stock tenfold. To-day I am the owner of a larger number of shares of the Asylum stock than you and the seven local trustees combined. Dr. Parker declined to sell his stock on any condition, and thus ended the interview. In May, 1867, Judge Mullen and myself made up a ticket* for a board of trustees to be voted for at the June election. Mr. Anderson was given the proxies to vote on the charter day, and this ticket would have been elected if the charter day had not been adjourned by Dr. Parker and his co-workers. To set aside their ille- gal election I commenced a suitf in the Supreme Court, but unfortunately Judge Cardozo presided on the bench, and my petition was denied. As Dr. Parker was using the fundsj of the Asylum in paying the expenses of the defense, Judge Mullen advised me not to appeal the case to a higher court. In 1880 Mr. Worrall made a subscription to a fund to found and build a Woman's National Hospital. He remarked after looking over the transfers of William C. Bryant, Stuart Brown, Samuel Sloan, Peter Cooper, Edward Cooper, Wilson G. Hunt, William F. Have- meyer, Jonathan Sturges, John Taylor Johnston, Henry Grinnell, Loring Andrews, Thomas W. Olcott, John F. Rathbone, George Tibbetts, and Charles Butler, that these gentlemen transferred their stock to the founder, because they thought that the best interests of the Asy- lum demanded it, thus carrying out on another plan that which Dr. Mott's resolutions proposed to accomplish. * See page 295. f See page 296-300. % See Touchers, page 304. THAT fa-4*€<**4" ^^M^^^^^: for value received, have bargained, sold, assigned and transferred, and by these presents do bargain, soil, assign and transfer unto J. Edward Turner, of Wilton, Connecticut, (the originator and founder of New York State Inebriate Asylum,) yf~2ULi..\---- v.........., ~\ .-> Share of the Capital Stock of the " New York State Inebriate Asylum^_________...................................._____........._.....__________.............___ standing mffttitd*name , on the Books of fn> "New York State Inebriate Asylum, and; do hereby constitute and anoint said J. Edward Turner,*.S&h&f..... .true and lawful Attorney irrevocable for ,4!**!^....and in /fet4£. ..name and stead, to his own use, to sell,,assign, transfer,.and^et over alt or any part of the said StocV, and for that purpose to make and execute alt necessary acts of Assignment and; Transfer, and one or more persons to substitute with like foil pbgfSa^iereby ratifying-and confirming all that lytofLf.........said Attorney, or substitute or substitutes, ebalHJ§^!aUy do by virtue hereof. Ull MitlltSS to^trtdf, <£F.---.......have hereunto set /^h^f . hand and seal the.... * aL..........___ day of. 'fiCZj^S*^- one thousand eight hundred and..^C4%^r~y/tflL£A* Sealed and delivered in the presence of I Ml J if 'fc HENRY WARD BEECHER. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 457 The trustees who established the first Inebriate Asylum served its interests for eight, ten, and twelve years, Avithout receiving a single dollar for traveling expenses or professional services. During their trustee- ship they disbursed in building the hospital four hundred and one thousand six hundred and thirty-five dollars and twenty-nine cents, with only two cents deficiency in the balance sheet. These trustees were as follows: Millard Fillmore, ex-President of the United States; John A. Dix, ex-Secretary of the Treasury and War, United States Senator, ex-Minister to France, and ex-Governor of New York; Benjamin F. Butler, ex-At- torney-General of the United States and ex-Secretary of War; Daniel S. Dickinson, ex-United States Senator; Washington Hunt, ex-Governor of the State of New York; Robert Campbell, ex-Lieutenant-Governor; George Folsom, ex-Minister to the Hague; Samuel Nelson, Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; Reuben Hyde Walworth, Chancellor of the State of New York; William T. McCoun, ex-Judge of the Court of Appeals; Charles Ruggles, ex-Judge of the Court of Appeals; Joseph Mulliii, Judge of the Supreme Court; Charles H. Doolittle, Judge of the Supreme Court; Ransom Balcom, Judge of the Supreme Court; Valentine Mott, M. D., LL. D., ex-President of the Inebriate Asylum; John W. Francis, M. D., LL. D., died while President of the Asy- lum; Jacob S. Miller, M. D.; James S. Wadsworth, Brigadier-General, killed at the Battle of the Wilderness; William E. Dodge, ex Member of Congress; Henry P. Alexander, ex-Member of Congress; Richard Schell, ex-Member of Congress; Charles Cook, ex-State Senator; Josiah B. Williams, ex-State Senator; David Hoadley, President of the Panama Railroad; James Boorman, President of the Hudson River Railroad; Anson G. 458 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Phelps, one of the largest subscribers to the Inebriate Asylum; Frederic Juliand, ex-State Senator; Thomas W. Olcott, President of the Farmers and Mechanics Bank; John F. Rathbone, Adjutant-General of the State of New York; James W. Beekman, President of the Woman's Hospital; John D. Wright, Founder of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; Henry T. Tuckerman, the Author; Sherman D. Phelps, ex-Judge; Samuel B. Ruggles, Trustee of Columbia Col- lege and Astor Library; Charles Butler, President of the Board of Trustees of the Union Theological Semi- nary; George Pumpelly; Edward F. Shannard; J. H. Ransom, Treasurer of the Asylum; Noah Worrall; Henry R. Mygatt; William Harris; Charles P. Wood; and G. W. TifTt. The trustees who destroyed the first Inebriate Asy- lum in the world, first unlawfully adjourned its charter day; criminally erased the names of the stockholders from the stock book; illegally deeded its property to the State for the consideration of one dollar, and in less than four years impoverished its treasury by wasting more than two hundred and eight thousand dollars;* and at last, with the State's aid, converted it into a mad-house. These trustees were as follows: Willard Parker, M. D., LL.D., President. William M. Tweed, ex-State Senator, did not receive a dollar for traveling expenses, or for any services rendered to the Inebriate Asylum. Jarvis Lord, ex-State Senator, did not receive a dollar from the Asylum for traveling expenses or professional services. Smith M. Weed, * The vouchers on pages 302, 303, and 304, will give the amount of money which was taken from the treasury of the Institution by the trustees in less than four years for professional services and traveling expenses. These vouchers are all filed as evidence in court proceedings now in progress before United States Commissioner Charles H. Hall, of Binghamton. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 459 ex-Member of Assembly; Ausburn Birdsall, ex.Member of Congress; Peter S. Danforth, ex-State Senator; Henry R. Pierson, Chancellor of the University of the State of New York; S. B. Woolworth, Secretary of the Board of Regents; Allen Munroe, ex-State Senator; Benjamin Huntington, ex-State Senator; George Burr, M. D.; John D. Orton, M. D.; R. Mathew; William P. Pope; Charles W. Sanford; S. Richmond; G. W. Tru- man ; H. A. Foster, ex-Judge; Charles P. Kirkland, ex-Judge; Henry Foster, M. D.; John Conkling, M. D.; W. R. Osborn; John P. H. Tallman; Henry W. Rogers; Alonzo S. Upham, ex-State Senator, gave his services; William Sage gave his services; O. D. Swan gave his services; Rev. C. H. Piatt gave his services; Abel Ben- nett gave his services; Jared Linsly, M. D., gave his services. CHAPTER IX. In behalf of the first Inebriate Asylum and the Woman's National Hospital, the founder carried a sub- scription paper or book thirty-one years, secured the interest, names, and subscriptions of the leading men of the nation; made one hundred and twenty thousand calls, and was refused an interview from more than eleven hundred influential men who were too busy to be inter- rupted or too rich to be annoyed. The founder was turned from their doors as a beggar, or driven from their premises by their dogs as a tramp, and under all these circumstances, unpleasant or pleasant as they were, he was only bitten six times by their canine defenders. There is no better way by which the reader can be informed of the interest which the prominent citizens of this country have taken in the Inebriate Asylum than to give a few names. The thousands of men who would not subscribe to its stock we are compelled for want of room to omit. (460) HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 461 THE FOLLOWING DISTINGUISHEB MEN OF AMERICA WERE AMONG THE ORIGINAL SUBSCRIBERS TO THE CAPITAL STOCK OF THE "UNITEB STATES INEBRIATE ASVLUM." Ex-Presidents of the U. S. Hon. Martin Van Buren, " Millard Fillmore, " James Buchanan. Ex-Sec. of State of XL S. Hon. Lewis Cass. Ex-Sec. of Treas. of the V. S. Hon. Howell Cobb. Ex-Sec. of War of the U. S. Hon. John B. Floyd. Ex-Sec. of Xa vy of the XL S. Hon. Isaac Toucey. Ex-P. M. Gen'ls of tbe U. S. Hon. Aaron V. Brown, " Francis Grander. Ex-Ser. of Int. of the XJ. S. Hon. Jacob Thompson. Ex-Att'y Gen'Is of V. S. Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, " Benjamin F. Butler, " William M. Evarts. Justice of U. S. Supreme Ct. " Ward Hunt, Ex-Justices XL S. Supreme Ct. Hon. Samuel Nelson, " John McLean, James Wayne, " Robert C. Greer. XL. S. District Judge. Hon. N. K. Hall. Ex-XL S. District Judge. Hon. Samuel R. Betts. Ex-Lt. Gen U. S. Army. Winfield Scott. Ex-Maj. Gen. U. S. Army. John E. Wool. Ex-XL S. Senators. Hon. Edward Everett, " Daniel S. Dickinson, " Ira Harris. Members of Congress, Hon. Freeman Clark, " William A. Wheeler, " E. H. Roberts, " Robert S. Hale, •' R. H. Duell. Ex-Members of Congress. Hon. John Greig, " Erastus Corning, " Gerrit Smith, " John A. Grizwold, " James Brooks, " Solomen G. Haven, " Charles P. Alexander, " Preston King:, " Thomas Davis, " Amos P. Granger, " Charles A. Mann, " William E. Dodge, " Richard Keese, " John H. Ketcbam, " Alexander H. Bailey, " Theodore M. Pomeroy, " E. G. Spaulding, " Daniel J. Bennett, " Henry J. Redfield, " Francis E. Spinner, " O. B. Matteson, " R. B. Westbrook, " Andrew Oliver, " Benjamin Pringle, " Alfred Ely, " Henry W. Slocum, " Addison H. Laflin. Hon. T. A. Taulminson, Governor State of X. Y. Hon. John A. Dix. Ex-Governors, State ofX. Y. Hon. Washington Hunt, " John A. King, " Edwin D. Morgan. Ex-Lt. Gov's, State of X. Y. Hon. John Tracy, " Robert Campbell, N " Luther Bradish, " Henry J. Raymond, " Thomas G. Alvord. Ex-Chancellors, State X. Y. Hon. Reuben H. Walworth, " William T. McCoun. Chief Justice Ct. of Appeals. Hon. Sanford E. Church. Judges of the Ct. of Appeals. Hon. William F. Allen, " Charles Andrews. Ex-Judges Ct. of Appeals. Hon. Hiram Denio, " George F. Comstock, " Samuel L, Selden, " Henry R. Selden, " Henry E. Davies, " Charles Mason, " Greene C. Bronson, . " Charles H. Ruggles. Judges of the Suj)reme Ct. " Joseph Mullin, " Chas. H. Doolittle, " Theodore Miller, " Joseph F. Barnard, " Samuel P. Ingraham, " Leroy Morgan, " John R. Brady, " Noah Davis, " Peter. Danforth, " Ransom Balcom, " John M. Parker. Ex-Judges Supreme Court. Hon. Daniel Cady, " John Savage, " Philo Gridley, " Henry Hoseboom, " (leoi'Re Gould, " Charles H. Whiting, " Henry Welles, " Edward I'. Cowles, " William B. Wright, " Alonzo C. Paige, " William Mitchell, " Thomas W. Clarke, " James Emmott, " Daniel Pratt, " William J. Bacon, " Wm. H, Shankland, " Hiram Gray, " Levi F. Brown, " Addison Gardner, " A. C. Hand, " R. Earl, " JohnW. Edmonds, " Charles Peabody, " Edwards Pierrpont, " John M. Mason, " Henry A. Foster, Ex-Judges Superior Court. Hon. Thomas J. Oakley, " John Slosson, " John Duer, " Joseph S. Bosworth, Hon. Murray Hoffman, " George W. Clinton. Judges ofCt. of Com. Pleas. Hon. Charles P. Daly. Ex-Judge Ct. Com. Pleas. Hon. Henry Hilton. Mayor of the City of X. Y. Hon. Wm. F. Havemever. Ex-Mayors of the City ofX. Y. Hon. William V. Brady, " A. C. Kingsland, " Fernando Wood, " A. Oakey Hall. Ex-Mayors of Brooklyn. Hon. Edward A. Lambert, Hon. George Hall. Pres. I'nion College. Eliphalet Nott, D.D., LL. D. Pres. Columbia College. Hon. Charles King, LL. D. Chancellor of the X'niversity. Rev. Isaac Ferris, D.D. Pres. Rochester X'niversity. Martin B. Anderson, LL. D. Bishops. Rt. Rev. B. T. Onderdonk, Horatio Potter, H. S. Whitehouse, " " G. T. Bedell, " Henry B. Whipple, " " E. S. Janes. Gen. James S. Wadsworth, " J. H. Martindale, Hon. Samuel B. Ruggles, Washington Irving, Hon. J.'T. Headley, " John Striker, " E. W. Leavenworth, Gen. John F. Rathbone, Hon. Thomas W. Olcott, " Bradford R. Wood, George W. Tiffts, Hon. Robert Emmett, James W. Girard, Robert J. Dillon. Hon. John Van Buren, George Griswold, Peter Cooper, Robert B. Minturn, John C. Green, Stewart Brown, ; W. Butler Duncan, John Hecker, Loring Andrews, Hon. Jas. W. Beekman, Jonathan Sturges, Hon. John J. Cisco, James Boorrnan, John David Wolfe, Anson G. Phelps, Sherman D. Phelps, John J. Phelps, Hon. Homer A. Nelson, Homer Ramsdell, Edward F. Shannard, M. M. Van Beuren, Wilson G. Hunt, James Boorman Johnston, John Taylor Johnston, Henry R. Mygatt, J. Ransom, John Mc Kesson, * Hon. James L. Graham. 462 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. THE FOLLOWING PROMINENT CLERGYMEN OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK WERE AMONG THE SUBSCRIBERS TO THE CAPITAL STOCK OF THE UNITED STATES INEBRAITE ASYLUM. Adams, D.D. William, Alexander, D.D. J. W. Abbott, Gorham D. Abbott, Jacob, Allen, Stephen T. Bethune, D.D, G. W. Brigham, D.D. John, Bush, D.D. George, Bellows, D.D. Henry W. Burchard, D.D. Samuel D. Beecher, H. W. Beach, Alfred, B. Baldwin, Theron, Bangs, Hernan, Bidwell, W. H. Bissell, S. B. S. Branford, William, Barrett, B. F. Burch, Thomas H. Blair, Hugh H. Buck, David, Backus, J. S. Bannavard, Joseph, Belch, William S. Bannard, Wm. Budington, William J. Cheever, D.D. George B. Canfleld, D.D. E. H. Cutter, D.D. B. C. Campbell, D.D. A. E. Chambers, D, D. T. W. Corey, Sidney A. Cuyler, Theo. L. Chapin, E. H. Covel, Lemuel, Chauncey, P, S., Cox, Richard, Conway, Thomas W. Crane, Jonathan, Collier, E. W. Cooke, S. Cook, R- S. Clements, Alexander, Crawford, John, Coe, David B. Carpenter, E. DeWitt, D.D. Thomas, Dickinson, D.D. R. W. Denison, S. D. Dix, Morgan, Darling, Charles C. Dunbar, Duncan, Diller, J. W. Drowne, T. S. Dickson, R. G. Eigenbrodt, D.D. Wm. E. Eaton, Theodore A. Embury, Edward, Evans, Benjamin, Farley, D.D. Frederick, Foster, D.D. R. R. Ferriss, W. H. Finney, Spencer L. Field, Henry M. Fox, Henry J. Gordon, D.D. W. R. Gallaudet, Thomas, Gillette, A. D. Guion, Thomas T. Guildin, John C. Hawks, D.D. Francis L. Higbee, Edward, Y. Hatfield, D.D. Edwin F. Hutton, D.D. Mancius, S. Haight, D.D. Benjamin I. Hardenburgh, D.D. J. B. Hallock, D. D. William A. Holdich, D.D. Joseph, Henry, D.D. C, S. Hogarth, AV. Hopkins. John H. Jr. Hermance, John P. Hobart, J. H. Kowland, R. S. Houghton, G. H. Hovey, J. Parsons, Hiscox, E. T. Hart, A. Bloomer, Huckel, William, Hatfield, R. M. Hare, George S. Haskins, S. M. Irving, Pierre P. Inskip, John S. Jelliffe, Hiram, Jones, Lot, Johnson, Evan M. Jones, Charles J. Konx, D.D. John, Krebs, D.D. John M. Karr, W. S. Lewis, D.D. W. S. Lathrop, D.D. Edward, Lucas, George C. Lawrence, Francis E. Landon, Seymour, Lewis, John N. Muhlenburg, D.D. W. A. MoElroy, D.D. Joseph, McLeod, D.D. John, McVickar.D.D. John, Mahan, D.D. M. Magoon, D.D. E. L. Mathews, D.D. J. M. McAlister, William, Matchett, AV. B. Millett, James, Marsh, L. G. March, Daniel, Marvin, Uriah, Montgomery, Henry L. Miley, J. Moore, Asher, McKee, Joseph, Macauley, John M. Neville, D.D. E. Noyes, Daniel P. Norris, AV. H. Norton, Charles G. Nash, Albert, Osgood, D.D. Samuel, Ogilby, Frederick, Potts, D.D. George, Phillips, D.D. AV. AV. Parker, D.D. Joel, Perry, D.D. James H. Prentiss, D.D. George L. Price, D.D. J. H. Prince, Newell A. Palmer, Ray, Porter, Elbert S. Prime, S. J. Peck, Francis, Partridge, A. H. Pound, Jesse, Pilsbury, Benjamin, Prestley, James, Quakenbnsh, D. M. L. Robinson, D. D. Edward, Rockwell, J. Edson, Rudder, AVilliam, Smith, D. D. A. D. Somers, D.D. Charles G. Spear, D.D. S. T. Smith, D.D. Henry B. Skinner, D.D. Thomas H. Spencer, D.D. J. A. Sawyer, D.D. T. J. Storrs, D.D. R. S. Jr. Seaver, Horace, Sanderson, Joseph, Senseman, E. T. Skinner, Thomas H. Jr. Seales, J. E. Smith, T. Ralston, Jr. Sing, Charles B. Shelling:, Charles, Steward, Ira R. Smith, N. E. Sayres, S. AV. Sarles.John AV. Tyng, D.D. Stephen H. Taylor, D.D. Thomas H. Turner, D.D. Samuel H. Thompson, J. P. Tagg-art, J. AV. Thompson, James, Tuttle, Isaac H. Towel], Thomas, Vermilye, D.D. Thomas E. Vinton, D.D. Francis, Van Kleek, D.D. R. B. ' Van Dyke, H. J. Van Aken, E. Vannest, Abraham, Williams, D.D. William R. AValton, D.D. AV. Wilson, D.D. Bird, Wood, A. A. Wright, A. H. AA'ard, Henry Dana, AA'iley, Frederick S. AVeston, S. H. AVells, J. D. AVeed, L. S. Wood, George AV. AA'oodruff, George W. Young, J. S. Editors of Daily Papers W.C. Bryant, Esq, Ev. Post Charles A. Dana, Tribune. G. Hallock, Esq., J. Com. J. B. Hall, Esq., Com. Ad. Col. J.AV. AVebb, Cour. & En. Hon. E. Brooks, N. Y. Ex, M.S. Beach, Esq.,N.Y.Sun. G. J. Tucker, Esq., News. Seik G,;-p,\?_Io£riM'}H. Jour. N. P. Willis, Esq. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 463 THE FOLLOWING PROMINENT PHYSICIANS OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK AVERE AMONG THE SUBSCRIBERS TO THE CAPI- TAL STOCK OF THE UNITED STATES INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Anderson, Henry .1. Anderson, James, Adams, Daniel L. Ayers, Daniel, Andrews, Thomas D. Atkinson, Asher, Armsby, James H. •Bedford, Gunning S. •Barker, B. Fordyce, Brady, P. J. fBuckley, Henry D. Bogart, Cornelius R. Beales, John C. Belcher, E. R. Belcher. George. Blackman, AV. N. Ball, A. S. Ball, John, Bavard, Edward, Befden, E. B. Beakley, Jacob, Barker, John, Brooks, Daniel, Ballard, Charles AA'. Burke, John. Bailey, E. P. Booraem, A. C. Blanchard, E. S. Beadle, Edward L. Bennet, George J. Bell, A. N. Budd, B. W. Berry, A. J. Bibbins, AA'illiam B. Belt, U. N. Beck, T. AV. Bumstead, F. J. Blois, Samuel, Burtsell, Thomas E. Barry, R. A. Brown, H. AAreeks, Benedict, G. Brinsmade, Thos. C. Blatchford, Thos. AV. Bissel, D. P. Bagrg:, M. M. Cock, Thomas F. •Cox, Henry G. •Carnochan, J. M. Cockcroft, AVilliam, Cammann, G. P. Crane, John J. Crane, James, Chilton, James R. Chalmers, Thos. C. Cullen, Henry J. Conway, John R. Clark, J. E. Clark, P. J. Clarkson, F. V. Cook, Puroell, Cook, Chauncey L. Cook, J. Colt, E. X. Church, AV. Henry, Clement, A. D. Cheseborough, N. H. Carringrton, AArm. A. Chapman, John S. Cooper, James S. Cairns, R. AV. Corson, John AV. Clussman, AA". H. Chapman. R. S. Clinton, Alex. Carter, G. S. Coe, G. •Delafleld, Edward, » Professors •Davis, E. H. Detmold, AA'illiam, fDixon, Edward H. "Doremus, R. Ogden, Douglass, Robert, Dodge, DA. Davis, John Davis, Charles, Devendorf, E. Dayton, Charles B. Dougherty, Ge. T. Dorsey, J. B. •Draper, John AV, Dearing, N. H. Dunlap, J. P. Enos, De AVitt C. Emmet, Thos. Addis, Elliot, Gem-g-e, Jr. Elliott, James W. Elliott, Samuel M. Elliott, Frederick, Eager, W. B. Elder, A. Ely, AV. AV. •Francis, John AAr. Foster, J. Conant, Field, Edward, Follin, A. Freeman, Alfred, Fisk, Lyman, Francis, A'alentine M. Francis, Samuel N. •Green, Horace, •Giiman, C. R. Gray, C. F. Charles, Green, David, Green. J. AV. Griswold, Samuel L. Gluck, Isidor, Gunn, A. N. deer, Setli, (Irey, Samuel S. Griswold, Stephen, Cray, John F. Gilfillan, George, Guernsey, E. A. Guernsey, T. B. Guernsey, Henry, Gescheidt, A. Gallagher, John, Gardner, T. J. Hosack, Alex. B. Hoffman, Rich. H. •Hall, AV. W. Hall, Edward, Hallock, L. Hewit, H. L. Harris, Francis L. Hyslop, James, Hevwood, C. F. Ha'lsey, J. C. Hunter, AVm. A. Hasell, L. C. Hartt, Henry A. Hubbard, S. T. Hull, A. C. Hull. A. G. Hamilton, Frank H. Hun, Thomas, Johnston, F. IT. Johnston, F. V. Jr. Joonson, J. Henry, Joslin, B. F. Janes. Edward H. Jenkins. J. Foster, Jackson, W. H. ,Ton?s, AV. W. Jones, Alanson, S. in Medical Colleges. Kissam, Richard S. Kissam, Daniel E. Kissam. James B. Kinsley, Hudson, Knight, James, King, O. R. Kimbark, E. H. Ludlow, Edward G. Loomis, Alfred I;. Livingston, AA'm. C. LandoTi, T. S. Ledeboer, B. •Mott, Valentine, Mott, Alexander B. •Metcalfe, John T. Menet, Julius F. Miller, John, Miller, Jed, Miner, AV. AV. Minor, James W. Murray, William, Murray, Alexander, Moneypenny, John Mulhailen, AV. E. Mason, Theodore L. Mitchell, C. L. Maxwell, Wm. H. MacDonald, J. E. McMillan, Charles, MacClellan, C. R. McClellan, John, McMurray, R. McPhail, L. C. MacFarlan, E. Martin, Joseph, Moffat, R. C. Myers, James, Morton, J. B. Marshall, G. C. Marion, George, March, Alden, McNaug-hten, Peter, McNanghten, James, Nelson, John, Nelson, J. B. Netting, H. V. Newman, R. B. Nichol, H. AV. Nichols, Elias S Newby, George, Noyes, James O Ogden, Benjamin, Olcott, C Oatman, J L O'Reilev, John, O'Reilly, L Osborn, John, Osborn, AVm F Ostrander, F AV •Post, Alfred C. *Parker, Edward H. Pratt, Peter, Proudfoot, Lawrence, Putnam, F. A. fPurple, Samuel S. Pond, James O. Purdy, Alfred S. Powell, Alfred, Peters, Georg:e A. Powers, AVilliam, Peters, John C. Palmer, AV. C. Peck, A. E. Pennell, Richard, Passmore. E. C. Perrine, AV. L. R. Porter, W. W. Quin, James M. Quakenbush, Dr. fReese, David M. Robson, B. R. Rochester, Thomas F Rockwell, William, Rising, J. C. Rawson, E. G. Rowe, A. Rabineau, J. Rotton, Otto, Rice, E. Reisig, A. Ranney, E. AV. Ranney, U. Rossman, R. Richards, J. AAr. •Stevens, Alex. H. •Smith, Joseph M. Smith, James O. Smith, O. H. Smith, H. S. Smithe, Daniel, Stone, John O. Seaman, Richard S. Shearman, John H. Schapps, V. H. Stitte, Nelson, Sheppard, Henry, Sewall, John G. Saltonstall, G. D. Stillwell, John E. Sayre, Lewis A. Sabine, Gustavus A. Shipman, John (). Swinburne, ,/ohn, Turner, Jose" li Al. Tomes, Robert, Tuttle, J. AV. Tucker, C. P. Thomas, G. D. Trowbridge, .1. F. Uhl, David, Underhill, Alfred, A'an Antwerp. A. Van Winkle, E. H. Van Pelt, M. 1). Van Kleek, J. R. A'ermeule, William, •Watts. Robert, White, James P. Wood, Isaac, Wood, James R, Wood, Stephen, AVhite, A. L. Whit<\ 0. AVarner, E. B. AVarner, L. T. Warner, J. AV. AVarner, J. T. AVatson, J. Wilson, A. D. AVilson, F. L. AV right, C. AVildman, C. V. AVest, E. AV right, L. AV right, A. Wade, Joseph L. AVade, Sidney, AVilliatns, H. E. AVeber, G. C. E. AAra)ker, Cornelius, AVilkes, Georg-e, AA'alter, Henry AVilliams, M. AV. AVhite, M. M. t Editors of Medical Journalc. 464 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. NOTED LADIES WHO WERE SUBSCRIBERS TO A FUND TO BUILD AND FOUND THE " WOMAN'S NATIONAL HOSPITAL." *Mrs. William E. Dodge, f " Anson G. Phelps, " Millard Fillmore, " Daniel S. Dickenson, " Horatio Seymour, " Samuel G. Courtney, " Abram S. Hewett, AA'illiam Allen Butler, H. M. Seheiffelin, Miss F. K. Seheiffelin, M. B. Seheiffelin, Mrs. Daniel D. Robbins, " John McKesson, " Mrs. Geo. Kemp, Miss M. M. Kemp, " J. A. Kemp, Mrs. Clarkson N. Potter, " Howard Potter, " A. A'. Stout, " I. N. Phelps, " George E. Dodge, " Charles C. Dodg;e, " D. Stewart Dodge, " M. G. Waper, " A. M. Dodg:e, " C. L. Tiffany, " Robert Hoe, Jr. " J. B. AVilliams, " H. M. AA'arren, " Roswell D. Hitchcock, " William Ormiston, " Noah Hunt Schenck, " Benj. H. Paddock, " Charles H. Robinson, " S. M. Hamilton, " Henry J. Van Dyke, Mrs. H. M. Scudder, " Samuel H. Hall, " Henry W. Bellows, " John De Witt " J. Marion Sims, " Frank H. Hamilton, " J. L. Little, " J. S. Thebaut, " J. B. Reynolds, " C. L. Mitchell, " Charles H. Shepard, " G. A. Sabine, " Egbert Guernsey, " F. S. Bradford, " Daniel Ayors, " Edward H. Dixon, Clemence S. Lozier, M.D. Amelia Barnett, M.D. Marv E Bond, M.D. Mary R. Gilbert, M.D. Sarah E. Bissell, M.D. Clara C. Plimpton. M.D. H. Amelia AVright, M.D. C. J. Yeomans. M.D. Emma Scott, M.D A. H. Burdick, M.D. P. J. B. AVait, M.D. Alary H. Everett, M.D. Eliza DeLa A'ergne, M.D. Helen S. Lassen, M.D. A. B. Van Arnam, M.D. C. F. McCune, M.D. Amelia AVilkins Sims, Alice Boole Campbell, M.D. H. M. Potter, M.D. Abby J. Raymond, M.D. Mary B. Moody, M.D. Amelia Springer, M.D. S. N. Smith, M.D. G. F. Comfort, M.D. Lucy M. Hall, M.D. Rose S. Bryan, M.D. JMiss Sarah Porter, % " Elizabeth H. Haines, % " Caroline P. Perkins, + " Annie M. Kelham, X " Elizabeth C. Bridge, ; % " Fanny J. AValsh, % " Annie E. Johnson, i t " Phelina McKeen, % " Caroline A. Yale, % " Julia C. G. Pratt, % " Harriet L. Keeler, ^Sisterhood of Mt. St. Vin- on the Hudson, ^Sisterhood of Sacred Heart, Manhattanville, JSisterhood of Srs. of Visita- tion, Georgetown, ^Sisterhood of Sacred Heart Kenwood,' Helen AV- Webster, M.D. A'as- sar College, Prof. Priscilla H. Brinton, A'assar College, Mrs. Julia Ray.Vas. College. " Alary E. Allen, do. '• AbbyF. Goodsell, do. Alice E. Freeman, Pres. of Wrellesley College. • Mrs. William E. Dodge was the first subscriber to the fund to build and found the " Woman's National Hospital." t Mrs. Anson G. Phelps transferred fifty shares of the New York State Inebriate Asy- lum stock to the founder. The said stock was owned by her late husband, Anson G. Phelps. X Principal of Female Seminary. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 46.1 THE FOLLOWING DISTINGUISHED MEN OF THE UNITE,, STATES ARE AMONG THE SUBSCRIBERS TO A FUND TO BUILD AND FOUND A WOMAN'S NATIONAL HOSPITAL. President and Cabinet, XL. S Hon. R. B. Hayes, Pres. U. S. Wm. M. Evarts, Sec. of State, John Sherman, Sec. of Treas., George AA'. McCrary, See. of AA'ar. R. AV. Thompson, See of the Navy, D. M. Key, P. M. Gen'l Chas. Devens, Att'y General. Ex-Cabinet otticers. Hon. Hamilton Fish, George Bancroft, Edwards Pierrepont, " Hugh McCulloch, Simon Cameron, Columbus Delano, Senators of the U. S. Hon. Win. A. AV heeler, Vice- Pres. U. S., " H. Hamlin, ex-A'ice Pres. U. S. " Fred T. Frelinghuysen, " A. B. Anthony, " T. W. Ferry, " H. W. Blair, ■" AV. P. Frye. " Eugene Hale, " AA'arner Miller, " Austin F. Pike, Francis Kernan. Theo. F. Randolph, " AVilliam AA*. Eaton, '• AVilliam H. Barnum, " J. B. McPherson, " George F. Hoar, H. L. Dawes, Nelson U. Aldrich, Ex-Senators of the XT. S. Hon. L. F. S. Foster, " Robert C. AA'inthrop, " Truman Smith, " J. AA". Stevenson. Judges of Supreme Ct. XL. S. Hon. M. R. AVaite, Chief Jus- tice D. S. Court, Justices of XL. S. Court. Hon. H. F. Miller, Joseph P. Bradley, " Stephen J. Field, " AVard Hunt, John M. Harlan, Stanley Matthews, Circuit Judges of U. S. Judge AVilliam J. Wallis, C. L. Benedict, N. Shipman, " John Lowell, " Daniel Clark, " Addison Brown, " J. T. Nixon, . " Thomas J. Morris. Judges of the State of X. Y. Court of Appeals. Hon. AV. C. Rug:er, Chief Jus. Chas. Andrews. Judge, " Geo. F. Danforth, " " F. M. Finch, Theodore Miller, " Robert Earl, " Samuel Hand, ex-Judge " B. F. Tracy. 30 Supreme Court Judges of the State of X. Y. Hon. D. Boardman, ' John R. Brady, " Joseph Mullin, " John L. Talcott, George Barker, " James L. Angle, ' H. Boardman Smith, ' L. L, Lewis, James C. Smith, J. C. Dikeman, " J. TV. Gilbert, " C. T. Pratt, M. H. Marvin, " J. H. AVeytbrook, " J. S. Landers, " E. N. Hardin, " F. A. Cullen, F. A. Macomber, G. N. Kennady, " Chas. P. Daly, C. J. " Joseph F. Daly, " ---Beach, " AA'm. J. Bacon, " Chas. Donohue, " C. H. A'an Brunt, " G. AA'. Reynolds, " N. H. Clement, " George AAT. Clinton, " James M. Smith, C. Beckwitn, Surrogates. " D. C. Calvin, " Daniel G. Rollins, James J. Bergen. Judges of the Supreme Court of Maine. Hon. John A. Peters, Chf. Jus. Artemas Libbey, Judge " L. A. Emery, " T. AV. Haskell, " J. A\'. Symonds, " C. AV. AValton, " W. G. Barrows, Judges of the Supreme Court of Vermont. Hon. AA'. S. A'eazzy, " Thomas P. Redfield, " Jonathan Ross, " H. H. Powers, " Russell S. Taft, " AValton C. Dunton. Judges of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire. Hon. C. Doe, Chief Justice, " Lewis M. Clark, Isaac W. Smith, " J. N. Blodgett. Judges of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. Hon. Marcus Morton, C. J. " Charles Devens, " AA'albridg-e S. Field, " AA'illiam C. Endicott, " Otis P. Lord, " AA'illiam Allen, Waldo Coulburn, Judges of the Superior Ct. " Chester C. Conant, Lincoln F. Brigham, Frank H.Dewey, John R. Putnam, Julius Rockwell, " John AV. Bacon, Judges of the Superior Ct. P. Emery Aldrich, " H. B. Staples, Wm. T. Gardner, M. P. Knowlton, " Caleb Blodgett. Judges of the Supreme Court of Connecticut. " J. D. Park, Chief Jus. 1 Elisha Carpenter, ' Dwight Loomis, " M. T. Granger, ' Chas. B. Andrews, Jdg. Com. Pleas. Court." " Edw. P. Sanford, Judg-e " H. Stoddard, Judges of the Supreme Court of R. I. Hon. Thomas Durfee, C. J. " G. M. Carpenter, " P. E. Tillinghast, " Charles Alatteson, Judges of the Supreme Court of Xew Jersey. Hon. M. Beasley, Chief Jus E. AV. Scudder, " J. Dixon, B. VanSeckel, ' M. M. Knapp, " AVilliam J. Magee, " Theo. Runyon. Chnclr. " John T. Bird, A'-Chnelr. " A. X. A'an Fleet " Judges of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Hon. Ulysses Mercur, C. J. " Edward N. Paxson, Judges of Ct. of Com. Pleas. Joseph Allison, C. J. " William S. Pierce, " James T. Mitchell, Michael Arnold, " Thomas H. Finletter, " R. Elcock, " J. Clark Hare, " D. Newlin Fell. Judges of the Supreme Court of Maryland. Hon. Georg:e AV. Brown, " Charles E. I'helps, AVm. A. Stewart. Judges of the Supreme Court of Ohio. Hon. AV. AV. Johnson, C. J " S. N. Owen, " M. D. Follet, Moses M. Granger, Chf. Justice Superior Ct. " G. R. Nash, Franklin J. Dickman, " ('. D. Marten, " John McConley, " M. F. Force, " H. D. Peck, " S. M. Maxwell, Chief Justice Com. Pleas. Morris L. Buchwalter, " A. B. Huston, " AVm H.Upson, State Ct. " John W. Jenner, " J. AA\Baldwin,ex-Judge, " AV. J. Gilmond. " E. F. Ring-ham, " C. H. McElroy. 466 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Ex-Go vs. of Xew York. Hon. John A. Dix, " Samuel J. Tilden, " Horatio Seymour, " Myron H. Clark, " R. E. Fenton, " John T. Hoffman, " L. Robinson, Ex-Govs. of Maine. Hon. Abner Coburn, Daniel F. Davis, " J. AVashburn, Jr., " Lot M. Morrell, " A. P. Morrell, J. S. Chamberlain, •' Nelson Dingley, Jr., " Frederick Robie, " Anlonzo Garcelon, Harris M. Plaisted, Ex-Govs. of Xew Hampshire. Hon, Ichabod Goodwin, " Charles H. Bell, " B. F. Prescott, " J. C. Cheney, " Frederick Smith, " James A. AVeston, AV alter Harrimau, " Nat Head. Ex-Govs. of Vermont. Hon. Redfield Proctor, John L. Bastow, " J. AV. Stewart, " J. Gregory Smith, " Horace Fairbanks, " R. Fletcher, Roswell Farnham, George W. Hendee. Ex-Govs. of Massachusetts. Hon. T. Talbot, " Alex. H. Bullock, " AVilliam Claflin, Alex. H. Rice, " AVilliam B. Washburn, Ex-Govs. of Rhode Island. Hon. Augustus O. Bourn, " AV. W. Hoppiu, " Charles C. Van Zandt, " Henrv Howard, " A. C. Howard, ex-Lt.Gv. " AV. B. Lawrence, " " Henry Lippitt, " Hon. A. H. Littlefield. Ex-Govs. of Connecticut. Hon. James E. English, " Marshall Jewell, Joseph R. Hawley, " R. D. Hubbard, " Alex. H. Holley, " C. R. Ingersoll, " Julius Catlin, ex-Lt.Gv " George G. Sill. Ex-Govs. of Xew Jersey. Hon. Joel Parker, " T. F. Randolph, " Marcus L. AA'ard, J. C. Ludlow. Ex-Govs. of Pennsylvania. Hon. Henry M. Hoyt, " A. G. Clurtin, " J. T. Hartranft, " James Pollock, " AV. E. Patteson, Ex-Govs. of Ohio. Hon. J. D. Cox, " Edward F. Noyes, " Georgje Hoadley, " R. M. Bishop, Generals of XL S. Army. Gen. AV. T. Sherman, " AVinfield Scott Hancock, " George B. McClellan, " AV. B. Franklin, " O. 0. Howard, " Henry W. Slocun, " M. R. Patrick. Universities and Colleges. Maine—Bowdoiu College. Prof. A. S. Packard, Pres. Colby University. Prof. Geo. D. B. Pepper. Bates College. " 0. B. Cheney. New Hampshire—Dartmouth Prof. E. D. Sanborn, " D. J. Noyes, " G. Campbell, " H. E. Parker, R. B. Richardson. Phillips Academy. Prof.AlbertC. Perkins,Master " B. L. Cilley. St. Paul's School, Concord, Prof. Henry A. Coit, " J. A. Coit, Charles S. Knox. Vermont—University of Vt. M. D. Buckham, Pres. Prof. S. A.Luthmore, " H. A. P. Torrey, '• G. H. Perkins, " J. I. Bliss, J. E. Goodrich. Middlebury College. Cyrus Hamlin, Pres. Prof. W. H. Parker, Ezra Brainerd, " L. A. Austin, " Henry M. Seely, " AV. AV. Eaton. Massachusetts—Harvard. Charles Eliot, Pres. Thomas Hill, ex- Pres. Theological School. Prof. C. C. Everett, Dean, " E. Abbott, " C. H. Toy, " E. Emerson, " Frances G. Peabody, " Thomas AA'harten, Cambridg-e—Episcopal Theo- logical School. Prof. Georg-e Z. Gray, Dean. •' John S. Stone, " A. A'. G. Allen. Tufts Divinity School. Prof.Thomas J.Sawyer,Dean, Prof. C. H. Leonard, " AV. G. Dansey. Tufts College. Prof. Edward H.Capen, Pres. Newton Theological School. Prof. Alvah Hovey, Dean, Prof. O. S. Stearns, H. Lendon, " E. Andrews, ■' E. P. Gould. Theological School Boston University. Prof. James E.Latemer, Dean, Prof. W. F. AA'arren, Pres. of Boston University. Amherst College. Prof. AV. S. Tyler, " Edward Tuckerman, " Thomas P. Field, " A. D. Moore, " H. H. Neill, " AV. C. Esty, " Joseph H.Chickering, " H. B. Richardson. Williams College. Prof. Franklin Carter, Pres. " Mark Hopkins,ex-Pree. " J. H. Hewitt, " R. A. Rice, " Leverett Mears, Phillips Academy, Andover. Prof. C. F. P. Bancroft, Pres. " E. D. Coy, " D. G. Comstock, " George T. Eaton. State Ag'l College. Prof. James C. Greenough, S. L. Maynard. Theological Institute of Conn. Prof. AA'm. Thompson, Dean, " Matthew B. Riddle, " AVilliam Karr, Chester D. Hartranft, " L, Pratt, " E. C. Bissell. Connecticut—Trinity College, Hartford. Prof. G. AV. Smith, Pres. Thos.R. Pynchon, ex-P. " John T. Huntington, " E. E. Johnson, " John Brocklesbv, " H. C. Bolton, " Geo. O. Holbrook, " L. W. Richardson, " J. D. Smyth. Andover Divinity School. Edwards A. Park, Dean, Prof. Charles M. Mead, " J. Henrv Thyer, " Egbert C. Smyth. " AV. J. Tucker, " J. W. Churchill, " F. E. AVoodruff, John Phelps Taylor, " George Harris, " Edward S. Hicks, " George F. More. Yale University. Prof. Timothy Dwight, Pres. Noah Porter, " Theodore D. AVoolsey, Leonard Bacon, " Samuel Harris, " S. AVells AVilliams, " Thomas Thacher, " William D. AVhitney, " James I). Dana, " B. Silliman, " O. C. Marsh, " Frances AVayland, Cyrus Northrop, " Elias Loomis. George T. Ladd, Henry AA'. Farnam, AV. H. Brewer, A. N. AA'heeler, H. A. Newton, A. A'an Name, ■ Robert Brown, Jr. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 467 Prof. S. AV. Johnson, " Henry P. AVrigrht, " Daniel C. Eaton, " Tracy Peck, " AA'illiam Beebe, " Henry A. Beers, " R. H. Chittenden, E. L. Richardson, " T. D. Seymour, " A. AV. Phillips, " A. AV. AV right, " John E. Clark, " J. AV. Gibbs, • A. J. DuBois, " J. L. Piatt, Jno. F. AA'eis, " G. J. B. AVesleyan University. Prof. Cvrus D. Foss, Pres. " J. M. Vanvleck, " AV. North Rice, " J. AV. Beach, C. S. Harrington, " AV. O. Atwater, " C. T. AVinchter, Rhode Island — Brown Uni- versity. Prof. E. G. Robinson, Pres. " S. S. Green, Ex-Prof. AA'illiam Gamwell, " J. Lewis Duncan, " John H. Appleton, " J. L. Lincoln, " A. Harkness, Benj. F. Clark, Eli AV. Blake, Jr. " Charles AV. Parsons, " A. S. Packard, Jr. " AA'inslow Upton. New York—Colleg-es & Schools Prof. F. A. P. Barnard, Pres. of Columbia College. A. C. Merriam, do. Howard Crosby, Pres. University of N. Y. " Alex. S. Webb, Pres. of N. Y. City College. Eev. Samuel D. Burchard, Pres. Rutgers F. Col. Prof. E. B. Faerbairn, Pres. St. Stevens College. " F. AV. Gockeln, ex-Pres. St. Johns College. " P. F. Dealy, do. " E. D. Goon, Pres. of Holy Cross, College. " H. Gabriels, (Pres. Jo- sephs Seminary, " T. Lessmaun, Pres. of Canesurs College. "' James A. Dooman, Pres Georgetown, College. *' S. H. Fonsbee, Pres. St. Frances College. " A. J. Meyer, Pres. St. Johns College, Brklyn " John P. Brophy, Pres. St. Lewis College. Union College. Prof. E. N. Potter, Pres. " L. P. Hickok, ex-Pres. " John Foster, " Robert H. Lowell. Cornell University. Prof. A. D. White, Pres. " AV. D Wilson, Hiram Corson, " G. C. Colwell, Cornell Universitv. (cont'd.) Prof. L. A. Wait, " S. B. Newoury, " AV. G. Hale, " A. N. Prentiss, " J. P. Roberts, " S. G. AVilliams, " B. G. AVilder, " Charles Babcock, " AV. A. Anthony, " J. B. AVebb, " Henry S. AVilliams. Syracuse University. Prof. C. N. Sims, Pres. " E. O. Havens, ex-Pres. " John R. French, Charles W. Bennett. University of Rochester. Prof. A. C. Kendrick, " S. A. Lattimore, " A. H. Mixer, " Otis H. Robinson, " J. H. Gilmore, Hamilton College. Prof. Henrv Darling. Pres. " F. AV. Burdick, A. G. Harkniss, " H. C. G. Brandt, " A. Root, Jr. Madison University. Prof. E. Dodge, Pres; . ' P. B. Spear, A. M. Beebee, H. Harvey, " John J. Lewis, A.J. Harkness, " AV. R. Brooks, S. Burnham, " James M. Taylor, " N. L. Andrews, Vassar College. Prof. S. L. Caldwell, " T. J. Backus, " L. C. Cooley, " AVilliam B. Dwight. Elmira College. Prof. A. AV. Cowles, Pres. Prof. E. S. Frisbee, Pres. of AT'ells College, Hobert College. Prof. R. G. Hinsdale, Pres. M. V an Rensselaer, ex-P. Union Theological Seminary. Prof. Roswell D. Hitchcock, Dean, Thomas S. Hastings, C. A. Briggs. Gen. Theological Seminary. Prof. E. A. Hoffman, Dean, " R. C. Hall, " Samuel Budd Rochester Theo. Seminary. Prof. Aug. H. Strong, Dean, Howard Osgood, " Benj. J. True, " A. S. Coats, " E. D. Burton, " J. Howard Lattison, " H. E. Robins. Auburn Seminary. Prof. Sam'l M. Hopkins, Dean A. J. Upson. New Jersey — Colleges and Schools. Rutgers College, Prof. AVm. E. Gates, Pres. " AVm. H. Campbell, ex-P " George H. Cook, " T. S. Doolittle, Rutgers College, (continued.) Prof. D. T. Reiley, George B. Merriman, ' Jacob Cooper, ' John C. Smock, E. A. Bowzer, ' Charles Muyer, " George M. Atherton, " Charles E. Hart. Prof. Frances J. Patten, Pres University of Princeton. Princeton Theo. School. Prof. Alex. T. McGill, Dean. " AV. H. Green, " James C. Moffut, " C. AV. Hodge, " A. A. Hodge, Charles A. Aiken, Prof. Henry Morton, Stevens Institute Tech. Drew Theological Seminary. Prof. John Miley. Dean. " James Strong, " D. P. Kidder, " S. F. Upham, " Henry A. Butts. New Brunswick Theo. Sem. Prof. David D. Demarest, " S. M. AA'oodbridge, " John DeAVitt, " AV. V. V. Mabon. Pennsylvania — Colleges and Schools. Lafayette College. Prof. John Mason Knox, Pres " AV. C. Cattell,ex-Pres. " Traill Green, ' F. A. March, " R. B. Youngman, " Thomas C. Porter, " J. AV. More, " J. M. Silliman. Prof. R. A. Lamberton, Pres. Lehigh University. " J. A. McCauley, Pres. of Dickinson College, " B. Sadtler, Pres. Muh- lenberg College, " Thomas G. Apple, Pres. Frank and Mar Col. '• Edward H. Magill, Pres. Swarthmore College. " Thomas Chase, Pres. Haverford College, " AVilliam R. Allen, Pres. Girard College, ■' W. J. Mann, Luther Theo. Seminary, C. P. Krauth, Univer- sity of Pennsylvania. Ohio—Colleges and Schools. Ohio State University. Prof. AV. H. Scott, Pres. " R. W. McFarland, " L. A\'. Robinson, •" A. H. Tuttle, " N. S. Townshend, ' Samuel C. Derby, " Edward Orton, " C. U. AVeld, " A. H. AA'illiams, Kenyon College. Prof. AV. B. Bodine, Pres. " George C. S. South, " E. C. Benson, " Eli T. Tappen. " R. S. Devol, " Fleming James, Ohio Wesleyan University. Prof. C. H. Payne, Pres. " L. D. McCabe, i _" W. G. AVilliams, 468 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. Ohio AA'esleyanUniv. (cont'd) Prof. E. T. Nelson, " AV. F. AVhitlock, " Richard Parsons, " C. B. Austen, " E. R. Martin, " Prof. Clara Conklin. Buchtel College, Akron. Prof. 0. Cone, Pres. C. M. Knight, " AA'. D. Shipman, " J. Gifford. AVitt College. Prof. S. A. Ort, Pres. " Samuel Sprecher, ex-P. " C. L. Ehrenfeld. Urbana University. Prof. Frank Sewell. Pres. Thomas F. Moses. Prof. W. K. Brown, Pres. Cent. AA'esleyan Col. Otterleen. Prof. H. A. Thompson, Pres. Sylvester F. Scovil, Pres.Univ. of AA'ooster University of Cincinnati. Prof. H. T. Eddy, Pres. AA'illiam K. Benedict. " W. O. Sproull, " J. M. Hart, " Thomas French, Jr. " T. H. Norton. Lane Seminary. Prof. James Eulls, Dean, " S. J. Evans, " John DeWhitt, " Henry P. Smith. John Hopkins Universiry. Prof. D. C. Gilman, Pres. Ira Remsen, " H. Newell Martin, Henry A. Rowland, " B. L. Gildersleeve, " Charles D. Morris, " W. E. Story, " Minton AA'arner, Thomas Craig, " C. S. Hastings, " H. N. Morse, " P. R. Uhler, " G. G. Morris, " A. M. Elliott, " Joseph Henry, Smithso- nian, AVashington, Alvan Clark,Cambridge AV. C. Bryant, Ed. Eve. Post, Park Godwin, " Edward Bright, Ed. Exam., AVm. Hayes AA'ard, Ed. Ind., H. M. Dexter, Ed. Cong., J. M. Buckley, Chris. Advo., S. 1). Phelps, J.M. Ferres, Ed.Chris. Intel., C. I. Hulley, Ed. Cath.Rev'w G.S.Mallory, Ed. Churchman E. H. Roberts, Ed. Utica Her. John G. AVhittier, Ralph AA'aldo Emerson, Charles Francis Adams, George AVilliam Curtis, Charles Dudley AVarner, T. S. Arthur, Samuel B. Ruggles, Chas. A. Dana, Ed. N.Y.Sun. Joel T. Headley, A E. Burr, Franklin Simmons, Italy, S. A. Clemens, Bishop of Maine, Rev. Henry A. Neeley, D.D. Bishop of Portland, " James A. Healey. Bishop of New Hampshire, Rev. W. W. Niles, D. D. Bishop of Manchester, Rev. Denis M. Bradly. Bishop of A'ermont, " AV. H. Bissell. Bishop of Burlington, Rev. J, S. Goesbrand. Bishop of Massachusetts, Rev. Benj. H. Paddock. Bishop of Springfield, " P. T. O'Reilly. Bishop of M. Church, " R. S. Foster, D. D. Bishop of Connecticut, " Jno. AA'illiams, D. D. Bishop of Hartford, " . Lawrence S. McMahan. Bishop of Rhode Island. Rev. Thomas M. Clark, D. D. Bishops of the State of N. Y. Rev. Horatio Potter, D. D. " Henry C. Potter, D. D. " B. B. Smith, D.D., Bis- hop of Kentucky, " A. N. Littlejohn, D.D, " F.D.Huntington," " William C. Doane, " " William L. Harris, D.D. John Card, McClosky. Rev. M. A. Corrigan, Arch Bishop, Bishop of Brooklyn, Rev. John Loughlin. Bishop of Buffalo, " S. N. Ryan. Bishop of Albany, " J. McMerany. Bishops of New Jersey, Rev. John Scarborough, D.D, " T. A. Starkey, D.D. Bishop of Trenton, " Michael P. Ferrell. Bishops of Pennsylvania. Rev. Wm. B. Stevens, D.D, " M.A.DeAVolfeHowe," " AVm. R. Nicholson, " " Edmond Schnindy, D.D. Bishop of Bethlehem. "■ H. A. Shultz, D.D, Bish- op of Bethlehem, " M. Simpson, D.D. Bishop of Delaware. " Alfred Lee, D.D. Bishop of Washington, Bev. AA'illiam Paret, D.D. Bishop E. G. Andrews, M. E. Church. Bishops of Ohio, " G. T. Bedell, D.D. " Thomas A. Jaggar, D.D. Bishop of Cleveland, " R. Gilmour. Bishop of Columbus, " John A. Watterson. I Bishop of Illinois, i Rev. Geo. F. Seymour, D.D., Rev. ThomasE. A'ermilye.D.D " R. S. Storrs, D.D. *' CharlesS. Robinson, DD, " Phillips Brooks, " JamesFreeman Clark, " " Joseph T. Duryea, " Henrv J. A'anDyke, " Henry W. Bellows, D.D, " Henrv AA'. Beecher, " Fred A. Farley, D.D, " Howard Crosby, " Noah Hunt Schenck, " " L. AV. Bancroft, " Samuel Osgood, " " A. B. Heart, " AA'. A. Muhlenburg, " " Isaac H. Tuttle, " Thomas Gallaudet, " Rev. AV. F. Morgan, D.D. " Morgan Dix, " Charles AV. Homer, " Thomas A. Eaton, " AVm. R. Huntington, " " James F. Horregan, " Sylvester Malone, " M. J. Maran, " AVm. R. AVilliams, D.D. " Thomas Preston, " A. A. Lings, " C. A. Walworth, " T. M. A. Burke, " George AA'. Philips, " Edw.Y. Buchanan, D.D, " Thomas F. Davis, " " AV. Cooper Mead, " " Geo. S. Hare, " Edward Lathrop, " " Charles Ray Palmer, " " Edward AA'. Bacon, " J. H Twichell, " Francis Goodwin, '• Nathaniel J. Burton, " " A. J. Sage, " A. S. Hunt, " Newman Smyth, " And 2000 other Clergymen. W. W. Godding, M. D., Sup. of Gov. Hospital fortheln- sane, AA'ashington, D. C. C. H. Nichols, M.D., Sup. of Bloomingdale Insane Asy., R. J. Parsons, M. D., Sup. Kings Co. Insane Asylum, J. M. Cleaveland, M.D., Sup. Hudson River State Hos. AV. AV. Strew, M. D., Sup. N. Y. Citv Lunatic Asylum, L. L. MacDonald, M.D., Sup. AA'ards Island Insane Asy., H. A. Butholph, MP.. Sup. New Jersey State Insane Asvlum. A. M. Shew, M.D., Sup. Conn. Hospital for Insane. H. M. Quimby, M. D., Sup. Asylum for the Insane, of Worcester, John G. Park, M. D., Sup. of AA'orcester Lunatic Hosp. D. H. Talcott, M. D., Sup. Asylum for thelnsane, Mid- dletown, N, Y. H. M. Harlow, M. D., Sup. Maine Insane Hospital. Edward Cowles, M. D., Sup. Danvers, Lun. Hosp., Mass. John P. Brown, M.D., Sup. Taunton, Lun. Hos., Mass. Clement A. AValker, M P., Sup. Bos. Lun. Hos., Mass. J. P. Bancroft, M. D., Sup. N. H. Asvlum for the In. C. F. Bancroft M.D., do. J. Draper, M. D., Sup. A'er- mont Asvlum for the Ins. John AV. AVard, M. D., Sup. N. J. State In. As. Trenton. Robert H. Chase, M.D., Sup. St. Ins. Asy. Norristwn.Pa. Bigelow T. Sanborn, M.D., Ast. Sup. Maine Ins. Asy. C. M. Finch, M. D., Sup. Col- umbus Ins. Asylum Ohio. C. AV. King, M.D.. Sup. Day- ton Asylum for Ins., Ohio. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 469 Theo. W. Fisher, M. D., Sup. of Boston Lunatic Asylum. John AA'. Sawyer, M. D., Sup. of Butler Hos., Prov., R. I. John Curwen, M. P., Sup. Pa. State In. Asy., Harrisburg. Prof. Isaac Lewis Peet, Prin. of the New York Institute for the Deaf and Dumb. AVm. Porter, M. D., Sup. do. Prof. AVeston Jenkins, Sup. ot New Jersey Ins. for the Deaf and Dumb. Prof. Amasa Pratt, Sup. of Ohio Institute for the Deaf and Dumb. Prof. Johnson Foster, Prin. Deaf and Dumb Ins., Phila. Prof. Z. T. Westewell, Prin. of AA'estern New York^Deaf and Dumb Asylum. Prof. Edward C. Stone, Prin. of American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb. Prof. AA'illiam \\". Turner, ex- Prin. do. Prof. Job AVilliams, American Asylum for Deaf and Dumb. Prof. E. M. Gallaudet, Pres. of National Deaf and Mute College, Washington, D. C. Prof. Wm. B. AVait, Prin. X. Y. Blind Asvlum, NY. ('it v. Prof. AVm. Chapin, Prin. of Pa. Blind Asylum, Phila. Prof. F. I). Morrison, Sup. of Blind Asylum, Baltimore. Prof. Henry Snyder, Jr., Sup. Ohio Institute for the Blind. Prof. Harvey B. AVilber, M. D., Sup. New York Institute F. M. Children. Prof. Isaac N. Kerlin, M. D., Sup. Penn. Institute, F. M. Children, Elroyn. Prof. G. A. Down, Sup. Ohio Institute for Feeble Minded Youth. T. D. Crothers, M.D., Pres. of Walnut Lodge Asy., Hart- ford, Conn. PROMINENT PHYSICIANS WHO HAVE SUBSCRIBED TO A FUND TO FOUND AND BUILD A WOMAVS NATIONAL HOSPITAL. Frank H. Hamilton, G. A. Sabine, J. Marion Sims, J. L. Little, John Metcalf, George A. Peters, G. H. Humphreys, James Anderson, James H. Anderson, Alexander B. Mott, Edward G. Rawson, James 0. Smith, James Knight, Thomas ('. Chalmers, AVilliam H. Maxwell, F. N. Otis, George G. AA'hitlock, AA'illiam C. Jordan, John H. Hinton, C. E. Blumenthal, E. T. Richardson, John F. Talmage, Samuel Talmage. E. A'alentine Buck, 0. AVhite, AA'illiam A. Hammond, James R. AVood, Lewis Hallock, S. Russell Childs, Lewis A. Sayre, Lewis Hall Sayre, B. F. Joslin, Henry D. Payne, "Win. X. Guernsey, E. M. Kellogg, E. A. Guernsev, J. AV. Dowling, William Tod Helmuth, F. S. Bradford, Richard Reisig, Edward G. Bartlett, John S. Bassett, G. Buskley, John H. Thompson, L. P. Burdick, James P. AA'hite, Julius F. Miner, Thomas F. Rochester, D. AAr. Harrington, Charles C. F. Gray, John Boardman, H. R. Hopkins, Z. AV. Wetmore, C. C. AVyekoff, Condrad Duks, AV. Gould, Edward Storck, F. AV. Bartlett, AV. AV. Miner, E. N. Bush, John D. Hill, T. Lothrop, L. P. Davton, J. C. Green. A. R. AV right, L. M. Kenyon, II. Foster, H. A. Foster, A. S. Hinkley, X. Osborne, A. C. Hoxsie, S N. Brayton, H. E. Colton, H. T. Appleby, A. T. Bull, H. C. Frost, John Hulbert, John F. Magee, F. P. Lewis, D. B. Wiggins, AVilliam B. Kenyon, S. F. Alixer, J. C. Eliot.t, Win. C. Phelps, F. AV. Abbott, B. Bartow, Thomas M. Johnson, Edward Little, L. Howe, George AV. Patteson, I H. L. Hall, | R. V. Pierce, I M. B. Folwell, R. Bbntecow, M. II. Burton, I AV. Atkin, | C. E. Nickols, i J. C. Hutchinson, I H. B. AVhiton, C. S. AVoodruff, j AV. S. Cooper, James C. Hall, JAN. Bell, A\'m. P. Sevmour, J. P. Bloss, R D Bloss, M AV Campbell, H .AI How, John Swinburn, J H Griffith, James A\7 Cox, W H Randell, A E Sumner, J P AVuffin, J G Rosman, R C Moffat, J F Atwood, G AV Richardson, J H AVard, J Young, G H Parkhust, AV L Everett, J AV Skiles, A Varona, Frank Bond, George B Hawley, P M Hastings, George 0 Jarvis, W A M Wainwright, Edward B Hooker, R H Tiffany, H Caruthers, Henry March. And seven hundred more physicians. 470 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. CHARTER OF THE WOMAN'S NATIONAL HOSPITAL. Section---. The object of this Hospital shall be for the medical treatment and control of inebriate women, opium eaters, and such other female patients as the board of trustees may direct. And for that purpose it shall have poAver, in its corporate name, to take, purchase, and hold real estate in the State of Connecticut, and erect thereon a building or buildings suitable for the purpose of a Hospital, herein before named, and to take, purchase, hold, and convey such persona] property as may be necessary to carry out the object of said corporation. The said Woman's National Hospital shall have power to sue and be sued, to make and usea Common Seal, and alter the same, to take and hold any grant or devise of land, or any donation or bequest of money or other personal property, to be applied to the founding or maintainance of said Hospital. Section---. The indebtedness of said corporation shall not exceed five thousand dollars. The property of the Woman's National Hospital shall be exempt from taxation. Every tenth bed in the Woman's National Hospital shall be a free bed for poor patients forever. Section XIII. It shall be unlawful for the board of trustees of the Woman's National Hospital to receive any appropriation from the State of Connecticut. RESOLUTIONS OF THE BOARD. Resolved, That the trustees of the Woman's National Hospital as officers or agents of said corporation shall not receive a salary or compensation for their services from the funds of said Hospital. 153 ACRES OF LAND DEEDED TO THE WOMAN'S NATIONAL HOSPITAL. This conveyance is made and the foregoing described tracts of one hundred and fifty-three acres of land are sold upon the following conditions, which are a part of the consid- eration for the conveyance, and enter into the same, viz: 1. That said tracts, or a part of them, shall be used for the principal Hospital buildings and the out-buildings of said corporation. HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 471 2. The said Hospital buildings shall be forever used and appropriated for the medical treatment of women addicted to the use of intoxicating liquor and narcotics, and such other female patients as the board of trustees of said corporation may direct. 3. That the majority of the board of trustees who shall be legally elected by said corporation shall be composed of medical men. 4. That the Superintendent and all assistant physicians of said Hospital shall be female physicians. • >. That the board of visiting physicians of said Hospital shall be male physicians. 6. That the indebtedness of said corporation shall not at any time exceed six thousand dollars. 7. That said corporation shall not at anytime or under any circumstances reeei\~e, directly or indirectly, any appro- priation or gift from the State of Connecticut. 8. That one bed of every ten beds of said corporation shall be a free bed for poor patients forever. 9. That the board of trustees of said corporation shall make an annual report on the second Wednesday of January in each year in detail of their proceedings, income, expendi- tures, number of patients admitted, discharged, and remain- ing in said Hospital on the first day of January preceding, verified by the affidavit of the treasurer of said corporation, a copy of which report shall be mailed to the Secretary of State of each State of the United States. An Act Concerning Inebriates, Dipsomaniacs, and Habitual Drunkards. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened: Section 1. Whenever any person shall have become an habitual drunkard, a dipsomaniac, or so far addicted to the intemperate use of narcotics or stimulants, as to have lost the power of self-control, the court of probate for the district in which such person resides or has a ]e«-al domicile, or of any relative of such person, shall make due inquiry, and if it shall find such person to have become an habitual drunkard, or so far addicted to the intemperate use of narcotics or stimulants as to have lost the power of self-control, then said court shall 472 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. order such person to be taken to some inebriate asylum within this State for treatment, care, and custody, for a term not less than four months and not more than twelvemonths; but if said person shall be found to be a dipsomaniac, said period of confinement shall be for the period of three years: provided, however, that the court of probate shall not, in either case, make such order Avithout the certificate of tAvo respectable practicing physicians, after a personal examina- tion, made Avithin one Aveek before the time of said applica- tion, or said commitment, which certificate shall contain the opinion of said physicians that such person has become, as the case may be, a dipsomaniac, an habitual drunkard, or has, by reason of the intemperate uwe of narcotics or stimu- lants, lost the poAver of self-control, and requires the treat- ment, care, and custody of some inebriate asylum, and shall be subscribed and sworn to by said physicians before an authority empowered to administer oaths. Section 2. Any person committed as a dipsomaniac to an inebriate asylum in this State, under the provisions of this act, may, after one year of treatment in said asylum, be permitted by the managers thereof to go at large on proba- tion, and Avithout custody or restraint, temporarily, or for a term of time, when, and under such conditions as the mana- gers of said asylum shall judge shall be for the best interests of such patient. Section 3. The managers, trustees, or directors of any inebriate asylum established by the laws of this State may receive any inebriate or dipsomaniac who shall voluntarily, or by persuasion of others, make application to be received into such asylum, and may retain such inebriate or dipsoma- niac for a period of not less than four months, nor more than twelve months; and they shall have over- such inebriate or dipsomaniac the same legal power of restraint as is given them by this act in the case of persons committed directly by any court or other proper authority. Section 4. Whenever any information shall be received by any judge of the supreme or superior courts of this State, that any person is unjustly deprived of his or her liberty by being confined or restrained in an inebriate asylum of this State, such judge, at his discretion, shall appoint a commis- sion of three persons, who shall hear such evidence as shall HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 473 be offered touching the case, and, without summoning the party before them, shall have one or more private inter- views Avith such person, and shall also make due inquiries of the physician and superintendent having charge of said asy- lum. Said commission shall, within a reasonable time, make report to said judge, and if, in their opinion, the party is not legally detained, or is fully cured or recovered, said judge shall issue an order for his or her discharge. Section 5. The commission provided for in the fourth section of this act shall not be repeated, in respect to the same party, oftener than once in six months. Section 6. Persons placed in any inebriate asylum, under any of the provisions of this act, may be discharged by the managers in whom the government of the institution is vested, pursuant to such rules and regulations as they may from time to time adopt in relation to the patients and the management of the institution. Section 7. The estate of any inebriate or dipsomaniac received by, or committed to any inebriate asylum, shall be liable for his or her support therein, and the costs and expenses of any of the proceedings herein provided for, shall be paid in the manner and by the person or party that the court or judge before whom the case shall be had, shall order and direct, and such court or judge is hereby authorized to issue his execution for such costs accordingly. Approved July 25th, 1874. To secure the location of the Woman's National Hospital at the town of Wilton, State of Connecticut, the following named citizens of Norwalk and Wilton subscribed one hundred dollars each. The said sub- scriptions were to be paid in team work or in building materials. Samuel L. Comstock, William D. Gregory, Benajali Gilbert, Lockwood K. Ferris, Elbert Olmstead, L. W. Keeler John Lockwood, James Comstock, N. Reynolds, C. H. Betts, A. W. jMerwin, William Sturges, Richard Dunning, Charles Cannon, Samuel B. Fancher, J. Belden Hurlburt, Charles E. Gregory, John W. Hubble, S. H. Huninirton, M. D., Henry E. Chichester, Edward Olm- 474 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. stead, J. M. Taylor, Augustus Whitlock, J. C. Rockwell, John F. Knapp, A. B. Gorham, M. D., Samuel Marvin, H. A. Barrett, Wm. Horton, E. Roscoe & Co., Charles E. Cole, Thacldeus K. Hubbell, Samuel H. Barret, J. B. Gorham, George Lynch, W. A. Paddock, Charles Lock- wood, E. N. Williams, Samuel G. Lockwood, Gould D. Jellefi, George B. Bedient, Samuel Middlebrook, W. H. Olmstead, B. F. Brown, L. E. Olmstead, S. B. Olmsteacl, Cyrus Morgan, A. Morgan, II. S. Reynolds, John Gor- ham, C. E. Mann, W. M. Hoyt, S. W. Roscoe, Sanford Keeler, T. B. Hick, J. Dodge, Egbert Smith, M. W. Davis, R. R. Roscoe, D. G. Betts, Charles Sterling, Daniel Moriathi, Morris Moriathi, II. D. Morgan, Louis Keeler, N. M. Belclen, Lewis Raymond, AVilliam Knapp, Rev. Frank Thompson, AV. J. Jelleff, AVashington Post, E. S. Betts, G. A. Davenport, A. L. Roscoe, John Kaiser, A. D. Sturges, Mrs. E. G. Betts, -William Dunning, James Dunning, F. Finch, Henry Finch, George Comstock, J. Edward Turner, AVilliam J. Turner, J. E. Turner, George M. Turner, G. AI. Turner, G. Turner, G. S. Turner, S. E. Olmstead, E. K. Lockwood, L. J, Curtis, C. J. Leonard, A. H. Byington, A. J. Meeker, Raymond Brothers, John H. Ferris, and H. R. Finch—($10,200)— ten thousand and tAvo hundred dollars subscribed by the citizens of Wilton and Norwalk for the location of the Woman's National Hospital. CEREMONIES, ETC.--BREAKING GROUND FOR THE WOMAN'S NATIONAL HOSPITAL, WILTON, CONN., OCT. 10, 1881. Thursday was a day long to be remembered by the staid inhabitants of the usually quiet and beautiful town of Wilton. Early on that bright and lovely day the national emblem could be seen gracefully floating from the summit of Asylum Hill, the spot selected for the "\ ..-■• .. jbwk ».. youth and age 5reaking ground. Nol^WALK, Oct.27 1881. THE BREAKING GROUND FoR THE Foundation oftheVMans national tfospiTAL at Wilton, conn. 476 HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. erection of the building for the " Woman's National Hospital,1' and a more charming and surpassingly beau- tiful place could not have been found in the country. From the building site of this valuable tract of 15.4>> acres deeded for this Hospital, a most magnificent panorama greets the eye. On the north and east the towns of Riclgefield, Redding, and Weston, are plainly seen, while turning southerly, overlooking the towns of Stamford, Norwalk, and AVestport, a most exquisite view of some thirty miles of Long Island Sound charms the beholder. Surely it must have been most gratifying to the feelings of the energetic and persevering projector of this noble enterprise to hear the enthusiastic remarks of admiration of the view from so many of the 500 present on that pleasant occasion. The object of this large gathering was to take the initiatory steps of breaking the ground for the erection of a splendid edifice to be used for the medical treatment of women addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors and narcotics. At 12 o'clock Dr. T. D. Crothers, of Hartford, announced that the exercises would commence with prayer by Rev. F. W. Barnett, of Wilton. This was followed by the removal of the first shovelful of the soil by the projector's little five years old daughter, Grace, who did it most gracefully, and which was wheeled away by Joseph E., his son of three sum- mers, amid most enthusiastic cheers. The Rev. Frank Thompson, of AVilton, then delivered an eloquent address, which was followed by a very inteiesting and appropriate poem, by Rev. John Davenport, of Water- bury. Dr. Crothers, of Hartford, then made a few suitable remarks, which were followed by a benedic- tion, by the Rev. E. A. Dutcher, of Wilton. Captain John Jones, of AVilton, who has seen his ninetieth birth- day, then turned the first furrow with his fine ox team, HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 477 holding the plow himself with a more nimble and elastic step than many men of one-half his years. There were twenty-seven yoke of oxen present, which, with plowing and scraping, made a good beginning. A fine collation having been prepared by a number of ladies of Wilton, assisted by D'Artois, of this city, the multitude dispersed with pleasing recollections of the day, and happy antici- pations of laying the corner-stone, and seeing the noble enterprise carried to a successful completion. Success to the projector and his gigantic undertaking. South Norwalk, October 10th, 1881. The aboye article was written by one who witnessed the laying of the corner-stone of the New York State Inebriate Asylum, September 24th, 1858. There are to be (126) one hundred and twenty-six polished granite pillars, which are to support (920) nine hundred and twenty feet of corridor. This corridor is to surround three sides of the Hospital building. These pillars are to be presented to the Corporation by the friends of the AV oman's National Hospital. Fifty of these memorial' pillars have already been promised by the friends of the deceased founders of the New York State Inebriate Asylum. Thus the Woman's National Hospital is to perpetuate the names of the men who were the builders of the first Inebriate Asylum. The engraved column represents President Valentine Mott's memorial pillar, which was subscribed for by his son, Henry A. Mott, Esq. Pillars to the following deceased Trustees and friends have been promised: John W. Francis, M.D., LL. D., Hon. Millard Fillmore, Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, Hon. Reuben Hyde Walworth, Hon. John A. Dix, Hon. William T. McCoun, Hon. Joseph Mullin, Hon. Charles H. Doolittle, Hon. Charles ENDOWMENTS AND GIFTS TO THE WOMAN'S NATIONAL HOSPITAL. §10,000 Subscription will finish and furnish Ward No. 1 in" the Woman's National Hospital, and give the donor the privilege to name the Ward. The donor's name shall be engraved on a marble tablet in Said Ward. £§,000 Subscription will finish and furnish Ward No. 2 in the Woman's National Hospital, and give the donor the privilege to name the Ward. The donor's aame shall be engraved on a marble tablet in said Ward. $6,000 Subscription will finish and furnish Ward No 3 in the Woman's National Hospital and give the donor the privilege to name the Ward. The donor's name shall be engraved on a marble tablet in said Ward. $4,000 Subscription will finish and furnish Ward No. 4 in the Woman's National Hospital, and give the donor the privilege to name the Ward The donor's name shall be engraved on a marble tablet in said Ward. $5,000 Subscription will endow in the Woman s National Hospital, a free bed forever with the privilege of the donor naming the patients. $2,500 Subscription will endow in the Woman's National Hospital, a free bed six months in each year, with the privilege of the donor to name the patient. $1,250 Subscription will endow in the Woman's National Hospital, a free bed for three months in each year, with the privilege of the donor to name the patient. $5,000 Subscription will finish and furnish in the Woman's National Hospital, the Chapel, and give the donor the privilege to name the Chapel. Upon the wall of the Chapel shall be erected a marble tablet, upon which shall be engraved the name of the donor. $1,000 Subscription will finish in the Woman's National Hospital the Library Room, and erect upon the wall of said room a marble tablet, upon which shall be engraved the name of the donor. $5,000 Subscription to the Woman's National Hospital, will lay out the grounds of said Hospital, into drives, walks and lawns, and ornament the same, and entitle the donor to name the Park. SI.OOO Subscription will finish in the Woman's National Hospital, a Conservatory, and erect upon the wall of said room a marble tablet, upon which shall be engraved the name of the donor $200 Subscription will finish and furnish a Patient's Room, in the Woman's National Hospital, and give the privilege to the donor of naming the said room after a Church. $100 Subscription shall be a fund for the Woman's National Hospital, the interest of which shall be expended in the repairs of patient's room and the refurnishing of the same. $50 Subscription will place in the Woman's National Hospital, a Memo- rial Pillar of polished granite, and give the donor the privilege of dedicating it to the memory of a friend. $10 Subscription will place in the Woman's National Hospital, a Memo- rial Arch cut in granite, and give the donor the privilege of dedicating it to the memory of a friend. $30 Subscription will place in the Woman's National Hospital, a Capital cut in granite, and engrave the donor's name on a marble tablet in said Hospital. $20 Subscription will place in the Woman's National Hospital, a Cap cut in granite, and engrave the donor's name on a marble tablet in said Hospital. fa £e.undersigned, do hereby agree to give as a fund to build and found a »M»M f Rational ^OSpital for the medical treatment of inebriate women and the victims of opium among women, all sums of money which we annex to our respective signature, The said subscriptions shall be paid in building materials for the construction of said Hospital. mm 480 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. H. Ruggles, Hon. Daniel S. Dickinson, Hon. AVilliam E. Dodse, Hon. James AV. Beekman, Air. Anson G. Phelps, Hon. Sherman D. Phelps, Hon. Gerrit Smith, Hon. AATashington Hunt, Hon. Samuel B. Ruggles, Hon. Charles Cook, Air. Hamilton Murray, Air. James Boorman, Air. Charles P. Wood, Hon. Henry P. Alexander, Hon. Josiah B. Williams, Air. Edward F. Shannard, Mr. Thomas AV. Olcott, Jacob Miller, M. D., Air. John D. AV right, Mr. David Hoadly, Hon. George Folsom, Mr. Robert B. Min- ton, Mr. Henry T. Tuckerman, Gen. James S. Wadsworth, Hon. Robert Campbell, Air. George Pumpelly, Hon. John Gregg, Mr. Jonathan H. Ransom, Mr. George AV. Tifft, Henry R. Mygatt, Esq., Hon. Edward Everett, Rev. Henry W. Bellows, D. D, Rev. Roswell Hitchcock, D. D., Air. Alfred B. Street, Harvey M. Wilber, AI. D., James P. AVhite, M. D., Frank H. Hamilton, M. D., John Hill, AI. D., and Mr. Joseph B. A^arnum. WOMAN'S NATIONAL HOSPITAL. In the year 1874 the writer beoan his second work of founding and building a Woman's National Hospital for the medical treatment of inebriate women and those addicted to the use of opium. Eleven years and three months were spent in canvassing twelve States in its behalf. After seven years spent in raising a fund of twenty-five thousand dollars in five-dollar subscriptions, the AVoman's National Hospital was incorporated by the Legislature of the State of Connecticut, and appointed the following noted physicians as Trustees of the Woman's National Hospital: Frank H. Hamilton, James P. White, Harvey B. Wilber, J. Marion Sims, George B. Hawley; Theo. L. Mason, Egbert Guernsey, H. N. Harlow and T. D. Crothers; the organization of the Corporation was consummated at the meeting of three of its appointed trustees by the election of the HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 481 officers of the Board. The meeting was held in Hartford, Conn., at the office of Dr. George B. Hawley. Dr J Marion Sims was elected President, but owing to declin- ing health, he refused to serve. Dr. George B. Hawley was elected Vice-President, and served as President up to the time of his death. Dr. T. D. Crothers was elected Registrar of the Board, and the writer its Treasurer. The Hospital was located at WTilton, Conn., and its grounds were broken by a little gathering of citizens. The plans of the Hospital were furnished by Thomas R. Jackson, a celebrated architect of New York City. The subscriptions in Wilton, for its location at that place, amounted, in labor and material, to ^10,200. Other subscriptions in money and materials amounted to over forty thousand dollars; and the amount of subscrip- tions collected amounted to &8,220. Amount paid on land............................................. &± oqq Personal property belonging to the Hospital................................ L060 Amount of work done in excavating cellar and drawing materials 1,985 Amount on hand unexpended............................................. \s0 In the winter of 1885, during the writer's three months absence from home, spent in canvassing the State of Ohio. "Sir. Parton's article in the Atlantic Monthly became widely circulated among the members of the legislature of Connecticut, largely, it is supposed, through the efforts of one Vincent Collyer, a representative of the town of Darien, who seemed to take more than ordi- nary trouble to have the legislators thoroughly under- stand Dr. Parker's sentiments. He said, "No one in this country stands higher for benevolence and profes- sional ability than the great surgeon, Dr. AVillard Parker, and his statements in regard to the New York State Inebriate Asylum can be relied upon as being truthful." 31 482 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. On reachino; home the writer was informed that the repeal of the charter of the Woman's Hospital had unanimously passed both houses, that the bill was in the hands of Governor Harrison, and that he had sent it back to the Committee of the two houses, in order to give the friends of the Hospital a chance to be heard. The writer appeared before this Committee, and stated that the minds of the legislators had been poisoned against the Hospital by Mr. Parton's article and Mr. Collyer's statements, and that he wished to give his version of Dr. Parker's connection with the Asylum at Binghamton; but the chairman, Senator R. J. Walsh, would not allow the history to be given from the writer's stand-point. The senator's manner and talk seemed to be imbued with Dr. Parker's spirit. One of the Committee asked the writer if he had not been indicted for arson. He answered "Yes," and then wished to explain, but this privilege was denied him by Senator Walsh. The Committee the second time unanimously reported for the repeal of the charter, declaring, sub- stantially, that the writer was a very bad man, and that he had only procured this charter for fraudulent pur- poses. Not a vote in either house was recorded against the repeal. The writer afterwards called on Governor Harrison, and gave him a brief history of the Binghamton Asylum. The governor replied that he had been greatly prejudiced against the writer, and that every member of the Legis- lature was so prejudiced, and unanimous in their deter- mination that the charter of the Woman's Hospital should not be allowed to stand; that if he should veto the bill the same vote would pass it over his veto.* Thus * As soon as the charter of the Woman's National Hospital was repealed, the kind and conscientious Postmaster of Wilton assumed the HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 483 ended for the time being the labors of eleven, years and three months; but the loss and disappointment of the writer was nothing to the disappointment of hundreds of husbands, fathers, and brothers, whose wives, daugh- ters, and sisters were victims of the disease of inebriety. X disappointed husband writes that he had been looking forward to the time when the Woman's Hospital would be opened; when his wife would regain her health Avithin its walls, and his little family would once again be happy; but that this cruel deed of ATincent Collyer had put this anticipated day "far off." "Having some knowledge of Binghamton Asylum and its history," he continues, "and having had a friend who regained his health in that Institution, I had some reason to think that there would be a chance for my wife when the AA7oman's Hospital should be opened. The destruction of the Inebriate Asylum at Binghamton was the work of Dr Parker, and the means which he employed in its downfall proves to my mind that he was a moral leper, and that his mantle has fallen upon his student, Vincent Collyer." A few months since the writer was called upon by a distinguished ex-judge, who related the history of three friends who had been patients in the Inebriate Asylum at Binghamton. The most noted patient was the late Professor P., who left the Asylum well, more than twenty years ago. During the many years since the professor left the Institution, he has been Dean of a law school, and the author of a number of law books, which has placed him in the foremost rank as a law writer. The other two patients left the Asylum cured, and for more than twenty years have practiced their professions with great success, right to send all letters directed to the Woman's National Hospital to the Postoffiee Department at Washington, D. C. Thus the projector was com- pelled to change his Postoffiee address to North Wilton. 484 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. and have also filled, with consummate ability, the offices of District and Assistant District Attorney of their counties. I have called to-day, said the judge, to give you a history of my sister, who has been a victim of the opium habit for more than twenty years. She is now consuming daily forty grains of morphine. She is also stimulated by taking one-half pint of whiskey in twenty four hours. Her age is fifty-five years, and she is a mother of eight children. As the Asylum at Binghamton has accomplished such a good work for men, I had reasons to believe that the Woman's National Hospital would accomplish a sim- ilar work for Avomen, and I had looked forward to its completion as the only restraint and cure for my unfor- tunate sister. As a subscriber to the fund of the Woman's Hospital, and a brother to the victim of opium Avho was looking forward to its healing wards for the relief of her miseries, I cannot at this time express my condemnation in too strong language for the act of Sena- tor Walsh and Assemblyman ATincent Collyer in secur- ing the repeal of the charter of the Woman's National Hospital. Perhaps I have used too severe terms in con- demning the men Avho were the planners and the work- ers in repealing its charter. This monstrous crime can only be calculated by the loss of thousands of lives which would have been saved by this Institution, and thus pre- venting the sorrows and miseries of families almost too great to be endured. My feelings were intensified a hundred fold against Dr. Parker when I heard the his- tory of the Binghamton Inebriate Asylum told by one of the most distinguished and scholarly men ot his times. This gentleman was born in Connecticut in 1800, mastered the Latin grammar in 1806, entered Yale Col- lege in 1810, graduated with distinction in 1814 and HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 485 finished his long and honored life in 1882. The relator of this story was the late Samuel B. Ruggles. This noted man I had professionally and socially known for more than forty years. The last time Ave met was at a dinner party given at the house of a mutual friend. I was honored by a seat at his side, and for three hours Mr. Ruggles interested every gentleman present with a most delightful talk of Avhat he had seen in Europe, and AA'hat he had learned at the formal opening of the Suez Canal, and rounded up his matchless descriptions and statements Avith a brief history of the Binghamton Inebriate Asylum, of which institution he was a trustee. I was interested, said Air. Ruggles, in this work for more than thirty years, knew all its noted trustees, and was familiar with the policy which so successfully carried the work to its completion and opened its doors for the reception of its patients. During the first twelve years of its organization, not a dollar of its funds were received for traveling or professional services by any of its trustees. Its balance sheet, Avhich shoAved. an expendi- ture of four hundred and one thousand, six hundred and thirty-tAvo dollars and twenty-nine cents, had a defic- iency of but two cents. The hospital's income from patients exceeded its expenditures, and not a death occurred among all its patients. The report of Dr. Par- ker to the legislature, during the time of the founder's superintendency, stated under oath that a large number of its patients were cured and benefited. In the Board's discussions and deliberations (before Dr. Parker Avas a trustee) no discordant element appeared to mar its har- mony or to check its progress. No small man's ambition, no selfish man's greed, no mean man's jealousy ever crept into its counsel. Although the board of trustees failed individually to interest the world in procuring subscrip- 486 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. tions to its capital fund, yet they fully co-operated with the founder in all his policies and plans, and distinctly understood that the Asylum OAvecl its conception, its growth and its organization to the labors of one man. In a conversation Avith the late Benjamin F. Butler, continued Mr. Ruggles, a feAv days after the laying of the corner-stone of the Inebriate Asylum, he expressed his opinion that the Asylum would groAV to be one of the most important hospitals of the age and one of the best endoAved. There will be, said Mr. Butler, hundreds of wealthy men AAdio will establish free beds in its Avards for the purpose of reclaiming their inebriate sons. No other institution can have such a necessity underlying its future encloAvments. In a feAv days I expect to go abroad to seek health and rest, hoping to return restored and invigorated, and reneAV my interest and increase my efforts in building up this good work. My absence from home and failing health Avould have under some circum- stances prompted me to resign the Presidency and Trus- teeship of the Asylum, but knowing that its interests Avill be protected in ever}' possible'way by its projector, I haA^e decided to remain its legal head and renew my labors in its behalf on my return. Air. Butler died in Paris in less than a month after our conversation and less than two months after the corner-stone of the Asylum Avas laid. In his last hours, he demonstrated to the world that he had full faith in the future success of tii Asylum and an unbounded confidence in the ability did integrity of the projector, by leaving the Asylum a legacy. I well remember meeting Dr. A'alentine Mott, in the year 1864, and talking Avith him upon the subject of the Inebriate Asylum and its projector. The Doctor related to me an account of his meeting for the first HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 487 time the founder, and Iioav he Avas impressed Avith his plan of building a great hospital for the medical treat- ment of the inebriate. After the plans were explained, continued Dr. Mott, I stated to the stranger that it Avould be quite impossible to create a great hospital out of an idea in the brief period of a life time. First, it Avould be the labor of a life-time to convince the world that the drunkard Avas a sick man and needed a hospi- tal for his treatment. Then it would require a third of a century to teach the people that the tippler could be cured in an Asylum, and a longer period Avould be spent in securing funds to build the hospital; and yet this work has been accomplished within thirty years. The jjeople have been educated, the Asylum has been built and organized, and the hospital opened and its great work commenced. At my advanced age, " when the grasshopper becomes a burden," I would not have accepted the presidency of any hospital or asylum hoAV- cver great the undertaking. The Asylum, Avhich I have seen spring into being Avith almost magic power, has my Avarmest sympathy and earnest prayer for its success. To its work I have sacredly pledged the remaining years of my life. My old friend, Peter Cooper, remarked Mr. Ruggles, the benefactor of his race and the founder of Cooper Union, nave half of his fortune and a greater part of his life to its plans and organization. No one would dispute with this venerable man the honor of being its founder, or to cloud his name and blight the reputation of his children for the purpose of robbing his life-work of its funds. The originator and founder of the NeAV York State Inebriate Asylum gave his life and all he possessed to his Avork, and yet he has been deprived of his good name made odious before the world, and driven from his lrcjJmcrPMilc,ffilU^ HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 489 humane work. Through deception and unlaAvful acts, Dr. Parker gained possession of the Inebriate Asylum and its funds. This very man, Dr. Parker, Avithin the period of thirty years received four hundred and fifty thousand dollars income from a hotel, and during that time sub- scribed twenty dollars as a fund to build and found an inebriate asylum. The life of such a man needs no criticism of mine beyond the records of the court, and the books of the Inebriate Asylum to make his name diabolical in the world's history. At the time that Professor James P. AVhite, of Buf- falo, was called upon by the founder and was notified that he had been appointed by the Legislature of Con- necticut a trustee of the Woman's National Hospital, the professor, on receiving the notice, remarked that he con- sidered the appointment a great honor, and regarded it with more consideration than his appointment by the governor of New York a trustee of the New York Insane Asylum at Buffalo, and would accept the trusteeship. He also remarked that he Avas one of the earliest sub- scribers to the capital stock of the New York State Ine- briate Asylum, and had made a subscription to rebuild its rear buildings, and had transferred his Asylum stock to the founder, and had made a subscription to the Woman's National Hospital, and for all of these contri- butions he had been fully compensated by having six patients in the Asylum at Binghamton, and by haAring four of them well men to-day. " I have Avatched," con- tinued the professor, "the Legislature of Connecticut for two sessions with a great interest, from the fact that the first effort made to the Legislature last year failed to procure the charter for the Hospital. This fact of failure before the Legislature prompted me to inquire of my old friend, Dr. Frank H. Hamilton, of New York City, what 490 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. kind of a man Mr. Vincent Collyer was, and Avhat motives could have induced him to oppose, by a violent speech before the Legislature of Connecticut, the grant- ing of a charter of one of the most important hospitals of the day. Dr. Hamilton's opinion Avas that Air. Collyer's opposition to the charter of the Hospital Avas prompted by Dr. Willard Parker, and that Collyer Avas a character that Avore the face of a woman Avith +he body of a hyena." As the charter of the Woman's Hospital has been granted and its location secured, it Avill be an easy work to found and build it, as no institution has a greater necessity underlying it. I have six female patients avIio are all victims of opium or alcoholism—two of them Avill die Avithin a month if they are not controlled in a hospital—the other four may live a year. These patients belong to highly respected families, and all of them have been developed out of the strain and drain of an overtaxed body in the drudgery of life, or in the excitements and gaieties of the fashionable world; such cases of physical and mental wrecks not only suffering themselves, but the families suffering even more than the victim. I am acquainted Avith a lady, daughter of an ex-judge, who Avas one of the most charming and thoroughly educated ladies in the country. Her mother Avas an inebriate, and she deA^eloped into a hereditary drunkard of the most loathsome and degraded character. At an early age she married a New York banker, and liA^ed on Fifth Avenue in all the elegancies and luxuries of the age. Yet she would wander, in her delirium, in the streets of the metropolis, and was often arrested by the police in her night costume. The husband of this victim often said to me that it would be HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 491 better for the wealthy men of the country to dispose of their horses and carriages to found an inebriate asylum for women, and their fashionable wives to pawn their diamonds to support it, than to live as mail) rich people are existing with such skeletons in the home. Such miseries and burdens will repeat themselves through all generations. The following letter was written by one of the noted physicians of New York, and one of the favorite pupils of the late Dr. Valentine Mott, and will describe the lady that Dr. White referred to: No. IS West Twenty-Third Street,\ New York City, June 6th, 1*72. j Dear Doctor:—Is there any law by which a person can be committed to an inebriate asvlum and kept there? I have a patient—the wife of one of the most Avealthy, respected, and influential of our citizens—educated, intelligent, and accom- plished—drunk nearly all the time. In her rational moments she is one of the most charming persons I haAe ever seen, but in her drunken frenzy one of the most infuriated demons out of hell. What can I do tor her? Yours truly, EGBERT GUERNSEY, AI. D. Four of the most prominent inebriate Asylums in the United States have had (as it is stated upon good authority) more than (15,000) fifteen thousand patients under treatment. The average treatment of these patients has been less than three months, and the num- ber cured has been estimated at from tAventy to thirty per cent. It is also stated by the medical men Avho have been the superintendents of these institutions, that if the medical treatment Avith a perfect control over the inebriate patient had been one year, that more than fifty per cent of the 15,000 patients Avould have been cured. This fully establishes what Dr. Valentine Alott declared forty-five years ago, that when the inebriate Avas medically treated and controlled in a thoroughly 492 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. organized hospital for a year or more as his case might demand, that fifty per cent of the inebriate patients in such a hospital would be radically cured. The Hon. Samuel Nelson who served upon the United States Supreme Court Bench, for more than twenty-five years, and A\dio spent most of his time at Washington Avhile Congress was in session, stated to the founder that he had seen the brightest and the ablest men of the nation die from inebriety; and that no dis- ease Avas destroying so many of our great men as this malady, and that no one cause Avas producing so much insanity and idiocy as the national habit of drinking. The magnitude of this subject of the drinking mania of the American people can only be measured by the astounding fact that one-twelfth of the entire popula- tion of the country are consumers of some form of stim- ulants; and the disease it has produced, the insanity it has developed, and the deaths it has occasioned, out- number the victims of yelloAV fever or small-pox. More than twenty-five thousand new-made graves are yearly filled by its subjects, and in less time than half a cen- tury it has required more than a million of burials to entomb its victims. Within the national grave-yard of this dead are numbered two ex-presidents of the United States, ex-cabinet officers, senators and ex-senators, gov- ernors and ex-governors, judges and ex-judges, lawyers, ministers, physicians, and all classes and conditions of men. ****** This history, sad as it is, will repeat itself with a record four-fold in its deaths and ten times in its insan- ity, before another half century has passed away. At a meeting of the trustees of the Asylum in which Dr. Mott and Chancellor Walworth took an active part, the Chancellor remarked that the day is not HISTORY N Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 493 far distant when enforced justice would declare that every death caused from inebriety, and every case of in- sanity developed from dipsomania, would be pronounced by the courts to be accidents of the rum traffic, entitling the widow and the orphans of the deceased drunkard to ($5,000) five thousand dollars; and to the permanently injured, (such as the insane), from this malady, ($10,- 000) ten thousand dollars. These are the sums which justice has provided to be paid in all railroad accidents —five thousand dollars for a death, ten thousand or more for a permanently injured person. In forcing the Government by laAV to pay out of its revenue of the liquor business—which amounts to sixty million dollars annually—it is simply doing a little justice to the family of the victims avIio have paid these millions of revenue. 1 would suggest, said the Chancellor, that the United States Government appropriate out of its excise moneys twenty-five millions of dollars to build twenty-five ine- briate asylums, Avith a capacity for twenty-five thousand patients, and endow twenty-five thousand free beds, Avith five thousand dollars each ; that the said asylums shall be provided Avith Avorkshops, Avhere the patient shall be employed Avith Avork, so that his earnings be exclusively appropriated for the support of his family, while he is under medical treatment of the hospital. This plan that I have suggested, continued the Chancellor, is eminently just and humane, and one Avhich our country sooner or later must accept. To illustrate the exact position and the relation which the United States Goat- ernment sustains to the liquor business, and the relation it holds to its diseased victim, it can be stated thus : If a corporation could ha\^e existed in this country which had received one thousand million of dollars from a traffic which, by accidents incident to its business, had 494 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. destroyed eight hundred thousand lives, and had refused to pay one dollar to the AvidoAvs and orphans of its victims, such a corporation Avould have aroused the con- demnation of all Christendom, and challenged the con- tempt of the civilized world. Yet this is exactly what our Government is doing. It is carrying on the same injustice and committing the same outrage upon the wicloAvs and orphans of the deceased drunkards, Avhile receiving the revenue of the liquor traffic, out of Avhich grow the causes of their insanity and death. It is estimated by the best medical authority that there are in the United States more than tAvelve millions of drinkers and opium-eaters. This vast multitude embraces all from the sipper of the wine at the festive board to the diseased victim who in his dying delirium calls for his last and fatal glass. One-fifth of the entire popula- tion of the country is divided into almost innumerable varieties of drinkers, Avhich it would be imjDossible to describe or even to classify under diseased conditions. The hereditary inebriety which produces the periodical attacks once in three days, or the peculiar phase of the malady \AThich attacks its victims once in three years, causes them to suffer alike from the same physical condi- tions modified or intensified by an exciting cause. This phenomenon of dipsomania is noticed by the practitioner, and can be calculated upon Avith as close mathematical precision as the revolutions of the planetary system. There are about five per cent of periodical inebriates who are constitutional drunkards. These cases often develop homicidal insanity, and are the cause of more social disturbance and divorces than any other form of the disease, and are more to be dreaded than any other phase of the malady. When this constitutional condi- tion of inebriety is developed in woman it is a certain HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 495 physical cause of an irresistible impulse for stealing, lying, vulgarity and profanity. These mental and moral manifestations of dipsomania are often developed in the most refined, conscientious, and religious Avomen. There is a class of inebriate women who never fall victims to the use of narcotics. They are the poor women of large cities avIio scrub and Avasli all day and drink and smoke all night. This class finds an early grave, or become incurable lunatics. Nine-tenths of the insane Avomen on Black well's Island Ave re once either hereditary or consti- tutional inebriates. Five-sixths of the opium-eaters of the country are women, and this class alone consume seventy per cent of all the opium imported into the United States. Not one-twentieth part of the narcotics consumed in America are administered under the advice and by the direction of a physician. A careful and a thorough investigation into the causes of insanity in the United States Avill show that fifty per cent of all its lunacy can be traced to the excessive use of alcohol. The census of 1840 shows that there were 17,480 insane and idiotic persons in the United States. The census of 1870 informs us that there were 61,950 insane and idiotic persons, and in the census of 1880 there were (168,892) one hundred and sixty-eight thousand eight hundred and ninety-two insane and idiotic persons—showing that insanity had increased threefold in ten years. At this ratio of increase, provided its population should double every thirty years, it Avould have in the year 1950 a population of (243,839,285) tAvo hundred and forty-three million eio-ht hundred and thirty-nine thousand tAvo hundred and eighty-five. The lowest average cost of supporting the pauper insane in asylums and poor houses has been tAvo dollars and fifty cents per Aveek, or one hundred and thirty dol- 496 HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. lars per year. Thus it will be seen that the cost of sup- porting the insane of the United States for the year 1880—the number being (168,892) one hundred and sixty-eight thousand, eight hundred and ninety-two— was ($8,967,222) eight million, nfne hundred and sixty- seven thousand, two hundred and tAventy-two dollars. The estimated cost of supporting the insane for the year 1950—numbering at that period (8,1)67,922) eight mil- lion, nine hundred and sixty-seven thousand, nine hun- dred and tAventy-tAvo—at the yearly cost of ($130) one hundred and thirty dollars each for their support, would amount to ($1,165,738,860) one billion, one hundred and sixty-five million, seven hundred and thirty-eight thousand, eight hundred and sixty dollars. It is estimated by investigators Avho haATe carefully studied the subject of Autal statistics that more than (35,000) thirty-five thousand persons die annually from inebriety; and this number does not include the deaths from the opium habit. Thus it will be seen that in fort)7 years the nation has lost (1,400,000) one million, four hundred thousand of its inhabitants by inebriety. It has been discussed and decided by many of the friends of the founder that a man who Avould exhaust his estate, mortgage all his property, and live in hotels and railroad cars for seventeen years, and not permit himself to enjoy his home Jess than four Aveeks in each year, and give his time in behalf of a public charity Avithout a monied consideration, is either an idiot, lunatic, or an unnatural father. Yet there are thousands of men Avho would make the same sacrifice, with like circumstances, if they Avere called upon to accomplish a similar work. The labors of the founder haATe extended over a period of almost fifty years, in which he has fought a campaign of many skirmishes and battles, and with HISTORY N. Y. STATE INEBRIATE ASYLUM. 497 varied success. All the great and good men Avho Avere associated Avith him in this memorable work have passed aAvay, and not one is left in this dark day of the Asylum's history to speak in its behalf or help in its work. Although their labors in the material Asylum have perished, yet the idea Avhich built it is immortal. THE ENU 32 WDE*. Affidavits in election case by AVor- rall, H. S.Anderson. Mott, Kingsley and Smith, 280-25)9. Alcohol and its effects on the human organism, 29; the effect on animals, 34; victims of, 227, 228. Allen, Judge AVm. F., statement in court, 368. Andrews, Judge Charles, statement in Court, 371. Andrews, Rev. Edward, D. I)., his statement to a local trustee, 264; his knowledge of the founder and his family, 264. Animals, experiments on with alco- hol, 35. Armsby, Dr. James H., statement and visit to the Asylum, 427. Bacon, Judge Wm. J., injunction by, 253; transfer, 346. Balcom, Judge R. S., quashes indict- ment of Founder, 269. Beecher, Henry AVard, transfer of Stock solicited, 318. Beekman, James AV., resolutions, 246; appointed on committee, 251, 258, 261, 262, 276; report on finances, 277, 280; statement, 445- 447; examination of the buildings, 448. Bellows, Rev. H. AV. D.D., portrait, 63; address in Xew York, 64; elo- quent appeal for the Asylum, 65- 69; address at laying of corner- stone, 111; connection with the Asylum, 397; transfer and state- ment, 396; the article in the Guard- ian and Advocate, 397. Birdsall, Ausburn, 239. 240, 244, 252, 253, 25S, 271, 272, 284,287, 289, 295, 298; Vouchers for profes- sional services, 302; misrepresenta- tions as to insurance, 304. Bishops of Episcopal Church; trans- fers by Bishops Horatio Potter, AVhite'house, Bedell and AVhipple, 386-389; statement and letter of Bishop Potter, 390; his reference to the clergy, 393. Brain, when and how diseased, 208. Bryant, AA'illiam Cullen, statement, 418; transfer, 419. Buchanan, James, President, 329. Butler, Benjamin F., elected Presi- dent, 79; portrait, 86; addresses on laying of corner-stone, 87,135; his first interest in the Asylum, 148; departure for Europe, 149; his death, 150; resolutions of the Board, 151: Chancellor Walworth's remarks, 151; conversation with S. B. Ruggles, 486. Cardozo, Judge, opinion in the ille- gal election case, 300. Champlin, Attorney-General, opinion given to Governor Hoffman, 383. Chaplain's report, 217; improvement of patients, 218; period of treat- ment, 220. Charities, State Board of, visit to the Asvlum, 266. Childs, II. 11. Doctor, his letter, 17. Conkling, Roscoe, visits Asylum, 267; sums up for defense, 269. Clergymen, circular to, 16. Colyer, Vincent, 482-484; Dr. Ham- ilton's opinion, 490. Church, Chief Justice, sworn state- ment in Court, 307. Cooper, Peter, statement, 417; inter- view with Dr. Mott, 417; cited by Mr. Ruggles, 487. Danforth, Peter S., report on finan- ces, 277-280; his vouchers for ser- vices, 303. Darwin, Charles, cited, 35. Day, Albert Dr., accusation of arson, 272. 297. Dickinson, Daniel S., portrait, 128; address, 129. Dipsomania, phases of, 36, 196; cases cited, 196-207; case of a lady, 490, Chancellor AValworth on, 493 ; phases of, 494; number of drunkards in U. S., 494; charac- teristics among women, 495. Directors, Board of, first chosen, 50 : efforts to secure subscriptions, 80. 500 Dix, John A., statement, 343. Dodge, William E., Treasurer, 80; statement, portrait and transfer, 410-412. Doolittle, Charles H., 245, 246, 248, 249,252, (note), 261, 358. Earl, Judge Robert, testimony in Court, 370. Election illegal; the affidavits of trustee AVorrall, 280-285; of Hum- phrey S. Anderson, 285-295; of Jordan L. .Mott, 295; of Thad- deus A. Kingsley, 298, of David S. Smith, 299; two tickets for trus- tees, 295; illegal action of stock- holders, (see Affidavits.) Em mott, Judge James, 352; legal opinions, 354, 355. Evarts, William M., transfer and statement, 333, 334. Everett, Edward, address at laying of corner-stone, 131. Excise moneys asked for the Asylum, 45-52. Finances, report of committee in 1866, 258; deficit of two cents 258; action of trustees on insur- ance, 271; Report of Danforth and Beekman, 276. Fillmore, Millard, portrait, transfer and statement, 326-328. Founder, address before trustees, 21; portrait, 23; pathology of inebri- ety, 27,105; before legislative com- mittee, 44; visit to Essex Co., 52; hislabors, 109,111.126; Dr. Mott's opinion, 16 8, 17 2; resolutions by Dr. Mott, 173; compensation of the founder, 174; report to the legislature, 193; Air. Tuckerman \s views, 230; Dr. Parker and com- pensation, 2.'!S; Birdsall's affected svmpathv, 240; Birdsall's threats, 241; calls on Dr. Parker, 241; the interview, 242; Birdsall's telegram, 244; supplies cut off, 252; re-in- stated, 254; Air. Ruggles' opinion, 255; endorsed by 39 medical super- intendents, 256; account under Dr. Alott's resolution, 259; resigna- tion, 263; the indictment, 2(5.'l; public sentiment. 264; Dr. Andrews' statement; 264; remarks of a State Charity Commissioner. 2(56 ; Par- ker expresses his sentiments, 266; Mrs. Parker's essay, 439; his com- pensation, 449. Francis, Dr. John AV., approval, 20; opinion, 39; portrait, 90; address at laying corner-stone, 89; first interest in the asylum, 152; his subscription, 152; elected Presi- dent, 153; action of the Board, 153; death, 153. Gardner, Dr. T. J., his trial for arson, 267; its failure, 268; testimony at trial, 268 ; acquittal, 269. Government responsibility for liquor traffic, 494. Graham, James L., 269. Grav, Dr. John P., his compensation, 449. Guernsey, Dr. Egbert, letter from, 491. Hamilton, Dr., Frank H., Opinion of Colyer, 490. Hand, Judge Samuel, legal opinion, 383. Hecker, John, statement, 380; cites Charles O'Conor's opinion, 380. Hill, Dr. John, portrait, 222. Hitchcock, D.D., Rev. R. D., address at New York meeting, 71; what the Asylum signifies, 73-77; letter from, 77; statement, 400. Hunt, Judge Ward, transfer of stock, 339. Hunt, Washington, letter, 40. Illustrations, New York State Inebri- ate Asylum, frontispiece; Woman's National Hospital, x; John D. Wright, 22 ; the founder, 23 ; Dr. Bellows, 63; Prof. Hitchcock, 70; Benj. F. Butler, 86 ; Dr. Francis, 90; D.S. Dickinson, 128; Edward Ever- ett, 130; Alf. B. Street, 136; Chan- cellor Wahvorth, 154; Dr. A'alen- tine Mott. 158; Dr. John Hill, 222; Millard Fillmore, 326; Judge Sam- uel Nelson, 336;Chancellor McCoun, 341; John A. Dix, 344; Judge Mul- lin, 364; Samuel B. Ruggles, 375; AA'illiam E. Dodge, 412; Gerrit Smith, 441; James W. Beekman, 44(5; Noah AVorrall. 453; Breaking Ground, 475; fac simile, 478; Dr. Mott's memorial pillar, 479; James P.White, 488.Beecher. H. AV., 456. Inebriate Asylum, New York State. Location, vn; buildings, vm; the architect, viu; its inception, 13; circular to Physicians, Clergymen, Judges, and Coroners, 16; neces- sity of the Asylum, 41: the char- ter, 43, 44; petition to legislature, 47; opposition, 48; Chancellor AValworth, 49; bill passed and signed, 51; free beds, 51 ; attempts to repeal charter. 51-53; police laws, 55; organization of Asylum, INDEX. 501 06; first Board, 56; stock books opened, 56; public meeting in New York, 57, (52 ; appeal to the public, 57 ; charter of the Institution, 59 ; New York meeting, 62, 77; speeches by Dr. Bellows, 64, and Dr. Hitch- cock, 71, President Wright, 56, Pres. Butler, 79; location secured, building commenced, 82 ; laying of corner-stone, 83 : addresses, poem, letters and ceremonies, 83 to 147; President Francis, 153; Walworth, 155; Mott, 171; petition from fif- teen hundred physicians, 174; en- dorsement by State Medical Soci- ety, 176; by Onondaga County Medical Society, 176; by Medical Journals, 177; petitions for appro- priations, 178; Dr. Mott's letters and statements as President con- cerning the Asylum and its patients 178-190; patients, 210; cases des- cribed, 211. 217; Chaplain's report, 217 ; statement of Air. Tuckerman, 223-232; President Parker, 233; resignation and election of trustees, 248-250; report and discharge of committee of investigation, 251; closing of Institution. 252 ; second fire, 271; charter amendments, 301; sold to State for $1.00, 302: number of patients. 305; money received from them, 305; Illegality of the sale, 374; charter cited, 385; trustees who built and who des- troyed. 457. 458; names of promi- nent subscribers, 461; clergymen, 462 ; editors, 462 : physicians, 463; a graphic story, 4S4. Insane Asylum, opposition to, 49; first organization of, 49; Pinel, 49; letters from Superintendents of insane asylums, 144-147. Inebriate Asylums, patients in, 491; proportion that might be cured, 491; opinions of Dr. Mott, 487, of Chancellor Walworth, 493, of Benjamin F. Butler, 486. Insane and Idiotic, percentages in European countries, 195; remark- able increase in New York and in the United States, 195, (note); re- straint by State. 208 ; proportion in population, 495; average cost, 495; increase of insanity, 496; future cost, 496. Internal Revenue, amounts received by National Government for liq- uors, 196. (note). Irresponsibility of the dipsomaniac, case described bv Dr. Forbes Wins- low, 197, 199, 200; paralleled in the Founder's observation, 198 199, 202; Dr. Drake's typical case, 203; homicidal madness, Dr. Esquirol's patient, 205; Comstock case, 257. Insanity of Inebriety, 37; acute and chronic, 37, 38; treatment, 38; control and treatment of the pa- tient, 39; crimes from this cause, 193; cases noted, 193, 194, 196, 207; resemblance to acute and chronic mania, 196. Inebriety, history and pathology, 24; morbid anatomy, 29; heredi- tary tendencies, 35; insanity of, 37. Insurance, 269; resolutions of Board 271; misrepresentations, 304. Judges, circular to, 16. Kennedy, Robert Lenox, statement, 424. Kernan, Francis, urges change of venue, 267; visit to Asylum, 2(57. Legislation, 43, 44, 47; petitions, 47; Walworth's statute, 49; bill passed and signed, 51; attempt to repeal charter, 51, 53; police laws, 55; charter of the Asylum, 59; national legislation recommended, 196; Parker's report, 279; charter amendments, 301. Letters, President Buchanan, 140; Secretary Cass, 140; Governor King, 140; ex-Governor Fort, 141; Preston King, 141"; Mayor Tie- man, 141; Judge Hand, 142; Bishop Horatio Potter, 142; Bishop Janes, 142; AVashington Irving, 143; President Nott, 143; Chancellor Frelinghuysen, 143; Governor Campbell, 144; James Boorman, 144; Dr. Thomas S. Kirkbride, 144; Dr. D.T.Brown, 145: Dr. AV. H. Rockwell, 145; Dr. H. M. Harlow, 145; Dr. AV. S. Chipley, 146; Dr. John M. Gait, 147; from an ex-patient, 243; Dr. Workman, 256; James W. Beek- man, to Founder, 277; Dr. Andrew McFarland, 429; Dr. Egbert .Guern- sey, 491. Lewis, John L., address at laying of corner-stone, 83. Lindsley, Dr. Jared, 321. McCoun, AVm. T., A'ice-Pres., 80; ser- vices, 81; visit to the Asylum, 81; transfer and statement, 339. McFarland, Supt., Andrew, letter on control of inebriates, 429. 502 INDEX. Manierre, Benj. F., Contradicts Dr. Parker, 450, 451. Mason, Judge Charles, 356. Mason, Dr. T. L., statement, 428. Martindale, John H., statement, 372. Miller, Judge Theodore, testimony in court, 369. Morgan, D.D., Wm., 392. Mott, M.D., Valentine, approval, 20; opinion, 39; letter from, 54; por- trait, 158; his inaugural, 159; his interest in the Asylum, 170; gifts to the Asylum, 171; resolutions, 173; letters and statements con- cerning Asylum, 178-190; death, 191; action of the Board, 191; proposed monument, 192; Peter Cooper, 417; cited by Mr. Ruggles, 487. Muhlenberg, D.D., A\rm. A., 391; statement, 393; interviews with Dr. Mott, Dr. Francis and Air. Beek- man, 394-395. Mott, Jordan L., 293, 296. Mullin, Judge Joseph, 363; testimony in court, 365. Mygatt, Henry R., statement, 378. Nelson, Samuel, 335; statements concerning inebriety among public men, 492. Nott, President, Eliphalet, letters from, 18, 143. Palmer, Rev. Rav, statement, 403, 406. Pamphlets issued, 20. Parker, Judge John AI.. 360. Parker, Dr. Willard, subscription to the Asvlum, 233; elected President. 233 ; first visit to the Asylum, 233: expression of his dissatisfaction, 233; new policy, 233; his views of Asylum management, 234; a drunkard's morbid appetite, 234; discussion with the founder, 234; Dr. Parker's resolutions, 235; his policy foreshadowed, 236; dissen- sions, 237; asked to resign, 237; compensation of Founder, 238; resolution to expel Founder, 239; urges Founder to go abroad, 240; the Board discusses policy of Par- ker, 245; his ruling concerning trustees, 248; closes Asylum, 252; orders supplies cut off, 252; chan- cellor Walworth's severe criticism, 261; prevents investigation of cost of building and of Founder's accounts, 262; Parker's hostile sentiments, 266: after the trial, 270; his report to the legislature, 279; efforts to secure proxies, (see affidavits, 280,299); sells the Asy- lum for one dollar, 302; his expen- ses paid, 304; losses by his policy, 305; his hotel; 443; address to Young men's Christian Associa- tion on Intemperance, 444 ; state- ment in regard to Manierre, 450. Parker, Mrs. Willard, her essay in the Guardian, 438. Parton, James, article in Atlantic Monthly, 272-276. Patients, number treated in the Asy- lum, 209; classification, 210; his- tory of cases, 211, 217. Pauper insane, average cost, 495. Peabody, Judge Charles A., 351. Phelps, Royal, interview with Foun- der, 513/ Physicians, their opinion sought, 16. Pierrepont, Edwards, 337. Presidents of the Asylum, John D. AVright, 56, 78 ; resigned, 79; Benj. F. Butler, 79; Chancellor AYal- worth, 155; Dr. Francis, 153; Dr. Mott, 171; Dr. Parker, 233. Peck, A., Ex-Governor of A'ermont, legal opinion, 382. Pierson, Henry H., declines to trans- fer his stock, 322. Post, M. D., Alfred C, his opinion of the indictment, 269. Prime, S. Irenaeus, solicited to trans- fer his stock, 320. Ruggles, Samuel B., speech at Board meeting, 255; his opinion of the Founder, 255, 260; the forced bal- ance of two cents, 261; connection with the Asylum, 376; testimony in court and legal opinion, 377; his story of the Asylum, 485: trus- tees, 485; conversation with Mr. Butler, 486; with Dr. Mott, 487; with Peter Cooper, 487. Schell, Richard, 269. Selden, Samuel L., 345. Selden, Henry R., 350. Seymour, Governor Horatio, opin- ion given to Mr. Shannard, 420. Shannard, E. F., statement, 420; Governor Seymour's opinion, 420. Sims, Dr. J. Marion. 435. Smith, A. D., President, statement. 409. Stewart, A. T., his interest in the In- stitution and how he lost it, 82. Street, Alfred B., portrait, 136; poem at laying of corner-stone, 137. Subscriptions sought, 19. " fac similes of, 307-316. INDEX. 503 Transfers by stockholders, first efforts, 31 7 ; interview with Henry Ward Beecher, 318; with Rev. Dr. Prime, 320; with Dr. Lindsay, 321; with Henry R. Pierson, 322; with Judge Bosworth, 323; with Smith AI. Weed, 324; transfer and statement of Millard Fillmore, 32(5; Smith Van Buren's statement, 328; Vice-President Wheeler, 331; trans- fer of President Buchanan, 329; transfer and statement of AVm. M. Evarts, 333; Judge Nelson, 335; Edwards Pierre]>ont, 337; Judge Ward Hunt, 339; Judge McCoun, 339; transfer of J udge Bacon, 346; transfer of Samuel Sloane, 347; Judge Henry R. Selden. 350 ; Judge Peabody,351; Judge Emmott, 352; Judge Mason, 357; Judge Doolit- tle, 359; Judge Parker, 361: Gen. Alartindale, 373; H. R. Alvgatt, 379: John Hecker, 381; Bishop Horatio Potter. 3 86; Bishop Whitehouse, 387; Bishop Bedell, 3S8; Bishop AVhipple, 389; Win. A. Aluhlenberg, D.D., 391; AVm. F. Morgan, D.D., 392; Dr. Henry AV. Bellows, 396; Prof. Henry B. Smith. 399 ; Rev. Dr. L. P. Hickock, 401: Rev. Dr. R. S. Storrs, 402; Rev. George B.Cheever, 404; Will- iam R. AVilliams, 405; Thomas Vermilve. 407; President A. D. Smith,l408; Wm. E. Dodge, 412; Edward Cooper, 415; Peter Cooper, 416; AVm. C. Bryant, 419; E. F. Shannard, 421; W. F. Havemeyer, 422; Jonathan Sturges, 42 5; James Brown, 426; Thomas AV. Alcott, 432; John F. Rathbone; 433; J. Marion Sims, 436; Gerrit Smith, 440. 442; James AV. Beek- man, 447; F. E. Spinner, 455. Tuckerman, Henry T., Resolutions concerning Dr. Mott, 191; his pa- per in the Atlantic Monthly, 223; his subscriptions, 192, 232. Van Buren, Smith, statement for ex- President A'an Buren, 328. A'ouchers, BirdsaH's,302; Danforth's, 303; Willard Parker's, 304;. trust- ees' traveling expenses, 304; fees to lawyers, 304; trustees' services, 304. Waite, Chief Justice, legal opinion, 384. Walsh, P. J..his action in Conn. Leg- islature, 482-484. AValworth, Chancellor, bill in legisla- ture, 49 ; free beds, 50; police laws, 55; his subscription book, 81; committee on location, 82; re- marks on Mr. Butler's life and character, 151 ; portrait, 154; first interest in the Asylum, 155; elec- ted President, 155; his opinions, 156; remarks at Board Meeting, 246; criticisms on Dr. Parker, 262 ; opinion on dipsomania, 493; on Government responsibility, 493. Weed, Smith M., declines to transfer his stock, 324. Wheeler, AVilliam A., 331. White, Prof. James P., trustee of Womans' National Hospital, 489. AVilber, Dr. H. B., statement and visit to the Asvlum, 434. I Wolfe, John David, 395. AVood, Dr. AVilliam, cited, 35. AVorrall, Noah, suit and affidavit, 295, 301: statement, 452: asks Dr. Parker to resign, 452. Womans' National Hospital, xi-xn; lady subscribers, 4(54; Statesmen, Judges, Generals, *Sc,465; Presi- dents, Professors, 166-468; Bish- hops and Clergy, 468; Editors, 468; Superintendents of State In- stitutions, 468; Medical subscri- bers to fund, 469; charter, 470; trustees not to be paid, 470; grant of land, 470; conditions, 471; law concerning dipsomaniacs, cvc., 471; subscriptions at Wilton, 473, 481; breaking ground, 474, 477; me- morial pillars, 477 ; trustees, 480; repeal of charter, 482 ; Governor Harrison's opinion, 482; state- ment of an ex-judge, 483. White, Prof., trustee, 489. AVright, John D., portrait, 22 ; first President, 56, 78; resigned, 79; transfer of stock, 79; visits to the Asylum, 79. i 73 ^ ! T^|j$jt. ymy'^c 'm*£:- ^«^)»5i^- 'l-M' '■{■' ^t''''5.•: y.yji'y\XiWK^fit* '$'.j2L--if~ .7 ?-,W ^fi NLM Q05bl3Sb b m ' '.'. .\,P- ttiftUbUUiyUUUl NLM005613566