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O! America! My country, when will you erase the stigma you now carry, of having imprisoned an unprotected minister's wife, for simply obeying God, by trying to live a life of practical godliness?

Shall a woman of America, when she consents to become a wife, and to her sorrow finds that the man whom she chose to be her protector, has instead, become the subjector of her womanly rights, be compelled to leave her offspring motherless, and be entombed alive, in an Insane Asylum, simply because there is no power in the laws of the land to protect her against the despotic will of her husband?

When will my countrymen fear God, more than they do the oppressor?

Gentlemen, action, investigation, is demanded of you, by this appeal, in order that your souls may be found guiltless in this matter. Dare to do your duty, and God will bless you.

Your Suffering Sister,
E. P. W. PACKARD.

After receiving the above letter, I think a failure to investigate into the merits of the case was in itself a criminal act. Ignorance of the state of my mental faculties could no longer shield them, for the letter contains a sufficient degree of intelligence to arouse an investigation to see if what I claimed was true or false.

But merely "doing not," did not extenuate their guilt, for the perpetuating of a wrong. It enhanced it; for the postponement of a difficult crisis only renders a settlement more difficult, and the evil consequences more inevitable and unavoidably certain.

Guilt was daily accumulating by each added day of most-wearisome imprisonment, and that tender babe was being thus deprived of its right to its mother's care, and that little flock of tender lambs were daily and hourly in suffering need of a mother's care and sympathy.

Yes, the quicker the settlement, the easier and the better, both for them and the injured victims of this most cruel conspiracy.

Now, they cannot clear themselves of guilt, if, Pilate like, they do try to throw the responsibility off themselves upon Dr. McFarland. For they know that for his act they will be held justly responsible, in the same sense that the Superintendent is held responsible for the acts of his employees.

For my aggravated and enhanced sufferings from this time, I hold the Trustees responsible; for it seemed that the Doctor's story was heeded and mine rejected, thus delegating an increased power to the Doctor to abuse me, just as his upholding Lizzy Bonner in her barbarities, only enhanced her power to harm still more.

Indeed, I suffered so much from his tyranny, for nine months from this time, that even the sight of the man, or the sound or sight of his name, was instinctively and inseparably associated with horror in my mind.

But the details of this period of purgatorial mental anguish, as I find it delineated in my journal, it will be impossible for me to give within the limits of this volume. I did propose when I projected the plan of this book, to give the history of these wrongs in detail to the world; but I shrink from the task.

The record of the adamantine pen God himself will give in his own way and time in complete detail. This record can never be obliterated, except by repentance on Dr. McFarland's part for the wrongs I have suffered at his hands.

I am determined, by God's help, now to write my own history in chapters indelible and indestructible in my own honest deeds.

The following letter to Dr. Shirley, of Jacksonville, written during these days of anguish, on some cloth, or tissue tea-paper which I obtained from the sewing-room, I handed to Dr. Sturtevant after chapel service in a manner similar to what I did my note to Mrs. Miner, except that I confined my salutation to a shake of his hand as I slipped the note into it.

But I am sorry to say I have more reason to think he betrayed me to the Doctor, than I have that Mrs. Miner did, for the Doctor told me himself that he had destroyed a "worthless letter" Dr. Sturtevant had given him from me.

I doubt not he spoke a truth in making that confession to me, and I think it was uttered under the influence of an exultant feeling which said:

"So you see, Mrs. Packard, I can head you anywhere! You are my helpless victim."

"Never mind, Dr. McFarland, you did then hold me; and the letter too, in your power, but now I hold that letter in my power, to publish to the world, that my readers may see in what its "worthlessness" consisted; and I now hold myself and you too, where the verdict of public sentiment will compel us both to stand just where our own actions will place us."

And Dr. Shirley can also see in what estimate I then held him. This opinion I based upon an interview I had with him in the Doctor's parlor, in company with Mr. and Mrs. Blessing, and as I was personally acquainted with no other man in Jacksonville, of course, made application to him as a dernier resort.

INSANE ASYLUM, March 20,1861.

DR. SHIRLEY -- KIND SIR: Constrained by the law of self-preservation, I feel compelled to make an appeal to your humanity for help. Yes, help for me, a helpless victim of severe persecution.