I have been prompted by my friends and urged by a sense of duty to write the history of the Ten Years I spent in Lunatic Asylums, and give it to the public. This I proposed to do as soon as I came out, but I dreaded to expose my family to the scorn and reproach that would be cast upon them by my telling the whole truth, and when I did conclude to give it to the public, my feeble health prevented me, for a long time, from doing any thing.

I commenced during the last summer to write a full account of all the terrible acts that I experienced, saw and heard during those eventful years of sorrow and affliction, hoping that at some future day I might be able to give it to the public.

N. B.—I have prefixed an original engraving to the title page of this little history, descriptive of an act that took place in one of the back halls of the Marshall Infirmary or Lunatic Asylum, Ida Hill, Troy, N. Y.

This certifies that I was a patient in the above-named institution from March 29, 1860, to October 13, 1870.

There are several reasons why the author offers to the reader and public in the present form, ten years, ten months and thirteen days of his life while he was unjustly held in lunatic asylums in different States; and there are many reasons that prompt him to write upon the cruel treatment he received from beings with unfeeling hearts and cruel hands, and there are good reasons why he has cause to write upon the treatment of other poor creatures which came under his observation who were confined within those walls up to October 13, 1870.

I herewith give to the public and reader a true statement of facts relative to some of my former life, and ten years, ten months and thirteen days while held in lunatic asylums by bars and bolts. Early in the year of 1859, I found I had overdone and become unable to labor as heretofore. My nervous system had become unstrung; I became somewhat disheartened, and I grew weak in body. My spirits drooped, and I verily thought I should be lost eternally. I became melancholy; the sun, the moon and the stars lost their brilliancy to me, and the sweet music and singing of the birds had lost their charm to me as heretofore; all nature seemed dark and dreary, and, like Job, I said "O, that I had not been." Things that were appeared as though they were not, and things that were not as though they were. At length I closed my business matters as far as in me lay. During the spring and summer of 1859 I was under medical treatment up to August 29. All seemed unavailing. The 29th of August I was persuaded in part and compelled to go to Brattleborough, Vt., Lunatic Asylum to undergo a course of medical treatment. I was brought home by Brother B. the last of November, nothing better; staid home through the winter with my little family.

Although I had staid four months in this so-called Vermont cure-all institution, I still crossed the green mountain toward my longed-for home in low spirits and sadness. Cheerfulness is natural to the strong and healthy, and despondency and gloom are usually the indirect consequences of some physical ailment. I have been troubled very much from my youth with the dyspepsia, nervousness, and bilious and other ailments. Long before I went to Brattleborough I was thought by Dr. Hall to have the consumption, who said my left lung was gone. Doctors mistake, as well as ministers and people, and I am glad a mistake is not a sin, neither is insanity. Mistakes sometimes arise from the want of knowledge or strength, sometimes from want of watchfulness and care. My great spiritual mistake was this (after having tried to serve the Lord from my youth), I verily thought, these many years of sorrow, I should be finally lost. This mistake arose from over-taxing the body, which became weak, drawing the mind down. I believe the mind is the man; so as man thinketh so is he. If he thinks right, he will act right until the mind changes. We are not our own; we are all bought with a price. I can say there is one who sticketh closer than a brother; and, to-day, I can truly say, as did the Psalmist, the Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want; He maketh me to lie down on green pastures; He restoreth my soul.

I stated in the outset there were many reasons why I undertake this great work.

MY GOD FIRST AND THEN THE PEOPLE.

Reason 1. Because I owe a duty to Him who rules and overrules all things.

2. Because I feel it my bounden duty to let the public know that these institutions are robbing some men and women of their liberty, and even of their lives.

3. Because the poor we have always with us, and when we will we may do them good.

4. I hope it may have a tendency to stimulate those who have authority, and the public, to examine these places more critically, that they may ameliorate, if possible, the condition of these unfortunate sufferers, by providing them with attendants or nurses with kind hands and charitable hearts.

With a hopeful prayer that this little history may serve the cause of truth, by enlightening the minds of those who are inquiring after truth, it is dedicated to the candid public by the author.

MOSES SWAN,
Hoosick Falls, N. Y.