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My guard transported their "nonentity" safely down three long flights of stairs, preceded by Dr. Tenny, and followed by my female attendants, to the door of the 'bus, where the Rev. Mr. Packard stood holding the door back for the reception of this living burden of non-existence.

Living burden of non-existence! Married woman's legal position under a Christian government!

Think! Law-makers! is this the way to raise woman to a companionship with yourselves?

Do you think this Reverend husband could look upon such a spectacle and feel the inspiration of reverence for a being whom the law thus placed in his absolute power? or, would not a man of his organization more naturally feel a contempt for a worm whom he could thus crush beneath his feet?

Yes, a Worm! a Thing! not a Being -- is married woman before the principles of common law. What wrongs cannot be inflicted upon woman on this principle?

And what power of self-protection can she use in case of any assault and battery upon her person or her rights?

Oh! my gallant brothers of this republic! just place your-selves in my exact position, and from this standpoint, frame such laws as would meet your own case. Then your doting daughters will never be liable to suffer a similar experience.

I found other employees from the house had been appointed to accompany this Reverend gentleman to the depot, to assist him if necessary in the disposal of his "human chattel," and with these gentlemen held a conversation on our way to the depot.

But with this Reverend, I did not deign to speak.

I told these men I should not need their services any longer -- that I should go as any other unattended person did, into the cars, as I did not recognize the claims of this legal pro-tector at all, and should ignore them entirely, by holding no sort of fellowship whatever with him. Therefore I wished they would see that I was put on board and comfortably seated, and I would excuse them from further duty. I could buy no ticket for I had no money.

I told them I knew not to what place I was bound, whether into another Asylum, a Poor-house, or a Penitentiary. No one deemed it necessary to inform a "nonentity "or a "chattel" in these matters, for this act might be an acknowledgment of a right of choice in a "chattel," which would be absurd, you know!

But from what my son had told me, I supposed he was go-ing to put me into an Insane Asylum at Northampton, Mass., for life, as a case of hopeless insanity. Indeed I knew that was his ultimate purpose concerning me, therefore it was, I did not willingly pass into the hands of this man, for this purpose.

It was not that I wished for liberty with any diminished ardor or intensity that I declined the boon now offered me; but because I apprehended its value to a greater degree than ever before; and also realized that another commitment into another Asylum would greatly enhance the danger of my ever obtain-ing this inestimable prize -- that is, the crisis towards which I felt myself verging must necessarily be postponed, perhaps indefinitely, by another Asylum experience. The great question with me seemed to be:

"Are you willing to be removed to another Asylum, and risk the consequences of fighting another battle for freedom; or, do you prefer to have the question settled at once, in the light of present experiences?"

By my protest, I said, "this question shall be settled at once -- the issue shall not be transferred to another battle-field."

Whether a married woman can retain her personal identity or not, was the great practical question involved in my case. My hitherto painful experience had already furnished proof sufficient, as it seemed to me, for the immediate agitation of this question, and my experience had already shown that any attempt to escape from this marital power was fruitless and impracticable, and also that any peace, regardless of justice, would only be a treacherous sleep, whose waking would be death!

"Go Willingly."

Written on the occasion of Dr. McFarland's saying that Mrs. Packard must be removed by force from the Asylum, in case she did not "go willingly."

"Go Willingly!" to such a doom!
My God! O lay me in the tomb,
Ere such a terrible decree
Bind me again by lock and key.

Where is the mother -- where the wife,
Daughter or sister, who her life
Would "willingly" resign to thee,
Who thus would wield thy lock and key?

"Go Willingly!" my future life
To battle in that stormy strife,
Torture my fluttering heartstring there
Amid the wailings of despair?

"Go Willingly!" to waste life's hours,
Its aspirations, hopes and powers,
To bury my affections there,
To those dim haunts of black despair?

"Go Willingly!" to read my doom
Thus graven on a living tomb, --
Where hope or joy can never come,
Till death shall call the prisoner home?

I'd rather rove the world around,
Chained like a criminal on ground
Where God's own sun my light would be,
Without the aid of lock and key!

"Go Willingly" Thyself! and find
Cure of thy own "disordered" mind!
The very willingness would be
Proof of a fixed insanity.