Bloomingdale Asylum, Dec. 26th, 1853.

To ——, Washington, D. C.

Dear Sir,

For several years past, I have repeatedly been on the point of making an effort to resuscitate a slight, but to me no less cherished acquaintance, by giving you some account of my doings and purposes, which, I have sometimes flattered myself, might not be without interest both to yourself and to such of your co-adjutors in Washington, as have enlisted with you in the noble cause of extending and diffusing knowledge among men. Of the proceedings of your institution I have occasionally informed myself, both from the pamphlets and reports periodically submitted to the public, and more especially from the volumes of regular "Transactions," in the archÆological and linguistical parts of which, I have taken so much the greater interest, as of late years my own attention has at times been almost exclusively directed to the same field of investigation. It is true, I have as yet neither been able nor willing to give any positive result of my studies. I have hardly done anything more than "to break the ice." This, however, I may safely say to have done, having not only had the best opportunities, (since I saw you last in 1848) of surveying the field in the time-honored centres of intellectual light on the other side of the Atlantic, but having also since my return, as a member of several Learned Associations, had special occasion and incitement to keep alive my interest in these engaging pursuits. And if there be any truth in the ancient adage: ???? ??s? pa?t??, I may perhaps even entertain the hope (non invitÁ MinervÂ) of some future concentration of my somewhat desultory excursions in these regions of light (where ignorance indeed, but ignorance alone, sees only darkness) to some radiant focal point. There are a number of subjects, closely connected with the inquiries, that come under the cognizance of the historico-philosophical section of your institute, which, I see, are agitated anew by the savants of the old world, and which to the resolution of certain problems, relating to the primitive history of this continent, are equally important here, perhaps entitled to our special consideration. Recent investigations would seem to show, for example, that our genial and acute Du Ponceau had by no means said the last word on the subject he has so learnedly reported. Several new works on the origin and classification of languages, that have made their appearance in Berlin, &c., since the day of Humboldt's attempt, would seem to invite to similar efforts on our side, and with special reference to the immensity of our cis-Atlantic field, which ought to be ?at' ?????? adopted as our own. Having most of these materials at hand, I have sometimes been tempted myself to try, whether by an exposition of the present state of that science, as cultivated by the Germans particularly, a new impulsion might not be imparted to it among ourselves. Some such purpose has been among the tasks, which I had proposed to myself for the present winter. The sudden suspension of my studies, and the consequent uncertainty of my affairs, however, have so seriously deranged my plans, that now I almost despair of being able to accomplish any of my more immediate and necessary purposes.—You will undoubtedly be surprised to learn, that I have been an inmate of the Lunatic Asylum, at Bloomingdale, for now nearly three months; your surprise will be still greater, when you come to learn, by what sort of machinations I have been brought here.

For several years past, I have been made the object of a systematic and invidious persecution, in consequence of which I have been obliged to shift my residence from one place to another, to spend my means in involuntary exile and unnecessary travelling, and altogether to lead a life of a discouraging uncertainty.

Shortly after my visit to Washington, (1848), where I saw you last, I was driven away from New-York, while yet absorbed in the midst of an arduous undertaking, (my large German and English Dictionary, which in consequence of my forced removal from the place of printing, I had to finish at an inconvenient distance), under circumstances of the most aggravated insults and abuses, (such as I had never dreamt men capable of,) and about six months after its completion the same miserable clique had already "finished" me in Boston and a regular "hedjra" to Europe was the consequence. [1] —I spent a year in London, Paris and Berlin, in a miserable struggle to repair my shattered health, (I had a cough, contracted from sheer vexation, while in the clutches of the miserable wretches, who seemed to be determined to vex me out of existence, which clung to me a year and ever and anon returns again,) and what was still more difficult, to forget the loathsome reminiscences of the immediate past by bringing myself in contact with the sanatory influences of the literature and art of the old world; partly with the intention of remaining there. I returned, however, in the hope of finding my difficulties subsided. But the same odious conspiracy, which had even contrived to mar my comfort and happiness in one place on the other side, (in Paris, where I spent the greater part of an academic year, at the University and libraries, in various studies,) had, as I found to my surprise, kept up a malevolent espionage over my peregrinations even, and I have since been subjected to a series of vexations and intrigues, which at times made me regret that I had not preferred any lot in a foreign land and among entire strangers to such an ignoble re-establishment at home. A personal attachment of former years was made use of to harass and lacerate my feelings, and an underhanded, venomous persecution, (which the parties, who were the authors, and who were in alliance with certain ecclesiastical tricksters, did not even blush to own), followed me at every step. The scum of New-York in the shape of Negroes, Irishmen, Germans, &c., were hired, in well-organized gangs, to drop mysterious allusions and to offer me other insults in the street, (and thus I was daily forced to see and hear things in New-York, of which I had never dreamt before,) while a body of proselyting religionists were busy in their endeavors to make me a submissive tool of some ecclesiastical party or else to rob me of the last prospect of eating a respectable piece of bread and butter. This odious vice of certain countrymen of yours was in fact the prolific source of all the difficulties I complain of, and it is remotely the cause of my confinement here.

In the course of this last year, however, these manoeuvres assumed a still more startling and iniquitous shape than before. Hitherto my domicile had been safe and quiet. For, although meddlesome attempts had been made to force certain associations on me and to cut me off from others, I had still been left sufficiently unmolested to accomplish some study without any flagrant interruptions. This last resource of self-defence and happiness was destroyed me at the beginning of last winter. New appointments at the University, (some of them degradations to me, at any rate, employed for humiliating purposes,) and the petty jealousies, nay even animosities, which among men of a certain order of intellect are the natural consequence of such changes, soon introduced disorder into the Institution, fostered a spirit of rebellion against me, and before the end of the first term of the present year, my course of instruction was entirely broken up. The difficulty (which in fact was wholly due to a shameless inefficiency of discipline,) was enveloped in a sort of mummery, the sum and substance of which, however, was plainly this: "that if I remained in the Institution in the unmolested enjoyment of a peaceful life of study, my independent progress would be an encroachment on certain colleagues of mine;" and this was in fact, thrown out as a hint for me to leave. The rent of my private room in the building had already been nearly doubled by Prof. J.—— for the same reason. As the University, however, had contributed but an insignificant item to my support, I neither considered it necessary to remove from the building, which is accessible to all classes of tenants, nor did I make much account of a self-made suspension of my course, although I grieved to think of the means that had been used to superinduce such a necessity. Prof. L——, who has always exhibited a pettiness of disposition, altogether unworthy of a man of science, had openly before my eyes played the confidant and supporter of a disorderly student, who on my motion was under college discipline, and the meetings of the faculty were made so disgusting to me, that I could no longer attend to make my reports. New methods of annoyance were devised. The council-room of the Institution, next door to mine, was converted into an omnibus for noisy meetings of every description—religious gatherings in the morning—ominous vociferations during recitation time—obstreperous conclaves of students in the afternoon—and violent political town gatherings in the evening. Besides all this, the menials of the Institution were corrupted into unusual insolence towards me, (among them my special attendant,) and the vexations of this description became so annoying to me, that for some time I had actually to do my own chamber-work. I had almost forgotten to mention certain mysterious desk-slammings in the council-room, and equally significant and intimidating door-slammings, particularly at a room opposite mine, which communicates (I believe) with a private part of the building, now occupied by a dentist, (that sublime science having also found its way into our college,) at unseasonable hours of the night, sometimes accompanied with various remarks, one of which now occurs to me: "Oh, you are not one of us!" (sung in operatic style.) The quiet of my residence was, moreover, destroyed by horrid vociferations at all hours of the night, before my very door, and regularly under my window, and these were made not only by students, (of which there were only a few, supported in their insubordination) but by an extra-academic body of men and women, certain zealous religionists and their impenitent coadjutors, evidently the abettors of my in-door enemies, and by two of my colleagues. A night or week of such proceedings would be enough to set a man crazy. What must be their effect if they continue for months? And yet expressions like the following were perpetually ringing in my ears:—"Go on!" "You are the man!" "You are not the man!" "Go on! no, stop!" (by the same voice in the same breath.) "Out of the Institution with that man!" (by the laurelled valedictorian of last year.), "Stand up!" (by Prof. C——, close to my door.) "He started with nothing!" (by the same voice in the same place). "Pray!" (by ditto.) "You have finished!" "Go away!" "Thank God, that that man is out of the Institution!" (by a lady member of a certain religious fraternity, on terms of intimacy with a certain prominent politician of the neighborhood.) "Pursue him, worm that never d-i-e-s!" (theatrically shrieked by the same voice.) "You are a dead man! Dead, dead, dead, dead!" (by the voice of a certain popular preacher. ) "He is deceived, he is deceived!" (by the spokesman of a body of theological students in front of the neighboring Seminary, as I was passing.) And at times even: "Die!" "Break!" (on the supposition that I was in embarrassed circumstances.) "Whore!" even was one of the delectable cries! To these I should add the mysterious blowings of noses (both within sight and hearing,) frightfully significant coughs, horse-laughs, shouts and other methods of demonstration, such as striking the sidewalk in front of my windows with a cane, usually accompanied with some remark: "I understand that passage so!" for example. A clique in the Historical Society, (where I had been several times insulted at the meetings,) and several religious coteries and secret organizations were evidently largely concerned in the business. To these noises and sounds corresponded an equally ingenious series of sights, so arranged as to leave no doubt whatever, but that the impressions of my sense of hearing were no delusion, and that there was no mistake about the authors. My spirits and health were completely shattered by the close of winter, and I crawled out a miserable existence, being confined to my bed most of the time, unable to do anything but to read an hour or two a day. The summer season emptied the University and the city, and I was relieved from the pressure. The repose was like a gift from heaven. A stout resolution soon consigned the terrors of the past to a provisional oblivion. I collected myself, recovered my usual composure and bodily strength, made arrangements for two additional text-books to my series, at which after the 1st of July I began to work steadily, in the hope of getting out of my pecuniary difficulty which the recent events of my life had entailed. One of these is now ready for publication and will appear in a short time. After I had fairly recovered the proper balance of mind, I wrote to the Mayor of the city, and to Dr. Ferris, the Chancellor of our University. To the former I complained of persecution ab extra, which might be stopped by police intervention, of the latter I demanded explanations for personal vexations and insults. Besides having connived at, nay participated in the disorders of the Institution, and besides having employed the menials of the establishment to enforce a ridiculous submission to an unconstitutional authority, the Dr. had in the presence of the Alumni of the Institution, convened at a banquet in the Astor House, openly insulted me by saying; "Shall I have to become the step-father to that man?" and again: "Next year I shall see another man in that man's place!" Both these expressions were used by the Dr. as he stood before the assembled guests, while making a short speech. In uttering them, he looked at me with a supercilious grin, and the question was addressed to the opposite side of the house, between which and the speaker there was a manifest collusion. My letter consisted of a protestation against the scandalous disorders of the Institution in general, and a request that the Dr. would retract the obnoxious offer of an unacceptable paternity as publicly as it was made, to include also a recantation of the words: "Death you shall have!" uttered near the door that connects my room with that of the Dr's., in his own voice and in connection with a declamation of Patrick Henry's famous speech, "Give me liberty or &c." This letter of mine was answered by spectral demonstrations (not unlike those of ghost-rappers,) in the Chancellor's room (next to my private study) between 11 and 12 o'clock on the night after its delivery, and by the insolent behavior of the University scullion, who on the following day after many other impertinences told me: "You must not speak so to the Chancellor, my son!" No other reply was made, and no further notice taken of my complaint. And yet my deportment towards Dr. Ferris had never been disrespectful, while his whole course towards me had been singularly provoking and offensive. He seemed to be ignorant of the fact, that I was both an alumnus and an officer of the Institution, and that as such I expected to be regarded in the light of a gentleman and of a scholar. By ignoring my protestations the Dr. treated me like a freshman, while his goings in and out of the building and his degrading alliance with the menials of the Institution, who were the accomplices of the disorder, gave him the character rather of a mechanic's "boss" watching over an apprentice than of a dignified president of a respectable literary institution.

I had by that time, (the middle of September last,) almost wholly recovered my health; the horrid recollections of last winter having been supplanted by the amenities of my summer studies in solitude; and I had nearly completed one of the new text-books I had agreed to prepare. A week glided away—and two—the session commenced—I was quietly engaged in my own business, without making any overtures to commence my public duties. In fact, I hesitated about commencing at all. About the first of October, a young man, a nephew of mine, brought me a telegraphic despatch from a distant city, requesting a confirmation or denial of the report there circulated, that I was dangerously ill, unconscious of myself, &c., and in immediate imperative need of friendly aid, being neither mentally nor bodily able to take care of myself. As there was a mistake in the name of the enquirer, I considered the matter a hoax, got up for mischief or the amusement of some inquisitive party, and retorted an abrupt telegraphic: "None of your business, sir!" A few days after, I received a letter of complaint from my brother-in-law, of——, stating that the telegraphic enquiry had been made by himself, and with the kindest regard to my comfort; that a letter from Dr. Ferris to a brother Divine of that city had been the cause of the sudden consternation among my relatives there. The Dr.'s letter was itself enclosed, having been surrendered to the party for whose benefit it was composed. In this letter the Dr. declares me incompetent for the business of instruction, alleges, that during the last winter I had given various symptoms of a disordered mind, which during the summer had increased (?!!) to such an extent, as to give serious alarm to the humane feelings of the Dr., and in consideration of which, he advises my friends "to take me at once away from study, to some institution adapted to such."

On the morning of the receipt of this intelligence (the 5th of Oct., I think,) I had just arranged my papers for my day's work, and in the best spirits and in excellent health, (deducting a cough which during the infamies of last winter I had contracted,) was about to begin preparing some copy for the printer. This strange way of answering a just complaint and grave accusations very naturally brought back the recollections of all the contumelies and horrors of last winter, than which the reign of terror has nothing more startling, save perhaps only the guillotine or the inquisition. The patience of Job could not have held out any longer. I went at once in search of the Dr., and finding him in conversation with Prof. Loomis, in the lecture room of the latter, asked him whether he had written the letter I held in my hands. His cool reply in the affirmative was itself an insult, made as it was in a manner, which confirmed my previous grounds of offence and the impression, that the Dr. would not remember that I was not an undergraduate in search of a step-father, but a gentleman and an officer of the college. Impatience and anger could not be restrained, and I told him that he was a—— and a——! and read his epistle publicly in the recitation-room of one of my colleagues, and in the hall of the University, at the same time inveighing in somewhat violent terms against the disorders of last winter. The result was general amazement.—My conduct may be considered too hasty by many. It is true I might have acted more rationally and calmly. As it is, however, so flagrant an outrage deserved exposition, and the production of such a statement made after such provocations is not only a justifiable act of self-defence, but a merited punishment of intrigue and falsehood, which I shall never have occasion to regret. Few men after such scenes would have stopped short at mere words. From the "Take care!" of Proff. L.—— and J.——, (who were criminally involved in the conspiracy of '48,) I inferred, that something was coming; indeed, I myself inquired, whether they were going to let such a grave matter rest without notice, as they had done with all my lenient protestations.

Two days after, on coming home from a walk, I was arrested by two officers of the police, consigned to a low prison for several hours, and without trial, (which was said to be over,) and without any legal counsel, converted into an insane man by the oath of two physicians, (one of them quite a young man,) who pretended to found their opinion on an examination of about ten minutes, and since then I have lived among lunatics in the asylum, from which I date this letter. My asseverations and objections before the justice were in vain. Dr. Ferris and a Wall-street broker cosily persuaded the judge in my presence, "to make me comfortable!" I have since finished the volume I had begun, though my absentment from my library obliged me to leave it less perfect than I had intended to make it. For this purpose I was rational enough, it seems. I venture, moreover, to assertf, that in all other respects (save only the obstinate affirmation of the reality of the scenes of last winter, which I am absurdly expected to deny,) my conduct since my imprisonment here has been found to be that of a man in the full possession of all his intellectual powers. Nor can the physician at the head of this institution conscientiously confirm either the sentence of the judge, or the affidavit of his professional brethren. I look upon it as perjury and a miserable shift to evade the real case of complaint, if any there be. A rational trial before a tribunal, where each side of the question could have been produced, would have been the part of honorable men, conscious of their own rectitude, and of the justice of their cause. But what aggravates these proceedings, is the strange expectation that I should humbly acquiesce in the supposititious incrimination of having been too unsafe to be left at large, of having been really incapable mentally and physically to take care of myself—and the still more singular menace of swearing me perpetually crazy, and of effecting a permanent abridgment of my liberty, in case I should attempt to defend myself, either legally or with my pen, against so palpable and serious infraction of the dearest rights of an American citizen. The scenes of last winter, of which I have given you but an imperfect outline, which were got up for the purpose of consolidating the power and preponderance of my adversaries, and of frustrating my efforts to defend my position in my usual way, i.e., by giving positive proof of my ability by actual services to the cause of academic education—these scenes of scandal and of terror I am expected to call a delusion of my senses, and thus to falsify my personal history, accuse my consciousness of mendacity, and literally to aid and abet the iniquity of my aggressors.

The day before my arrest, I was solicited by a number of students to commence my course, which I consented to do by the beginning of the following week, and as this year I had already the proof-sheets of several disquisitions on German literature in my hands, I could have begun publicly and under the most favorable auspices. But it would seem that these gentlemen were determined that I should not begin, and that they adopted this most admirable and effectual method of anticipating my perfectly regular and legitimate movements. Indeed, by the enquiry, "What are you going to do?" I have already been desired to infer, that an entire abandonment of my profession was expected of me. Its exercise had already been rendered as difficult as possible, several members of the Council having for several years past virtually superseded me by encouraging two other men on the same spot, which I in all honor was entitled to occupy myself, and which contained hardly room enough for one. What would Humboldt, Grimm, AmpÈre, Burnouf, and some of our other friends on the other side of the water say to such proceedings? I am reduced to penury, when from my public position I might be expected to be independent, I am deprived of the liberty of academic instruction by the terrorism of a narrow-minded clique, while successfully and diligently engaged in adding fresh honor to my post, I am bereft of freedom altogether by men, who owe their power to the fortuitous concurrence of local and sectarian influences, who are utter strangers to the large humanity of liberal culture, and who are too ignorant to decide upon the merits of a man of letters, being themselves destitute of both name and place among those who represent the literary and scientific enlightenment of our age and country. But I have wearied your patience already too long. I should like to have my case properly understood at Washington, and you will pardon my having burdened you with so much of the detail. In regard to my future movements I am uncertain. Supposing even my liberation to be near at hand, it will be difficult to commence in the midst of winter in the city, where all educational arrangements are made in the autumn. This fact was well known to those who have tied my hands. Several educational works I am anxious to complete, one particularly, at which I was interrupted a year ago this month.

I am, with great consideration,
most respectfully and truly
Yours,

G. J. Adler.