xt78cz322k68 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt78cz322k68/data/mets.xml Crozier, C. W., 1807- 1846 books b92f455b3c702009 English Prentice and Weissinger : Louisville, Ky. Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Baker, Abner, 1813-1845. Life and trial of Dr. Abner Baker, Jr. : (a monomaniac,) who was executed October 3, 1845, for the alleged murder of his brother-in-law, Daniel Bates; including letters and petitions in favor of a pardon, and narrative of the circumstances attending his execution, etc. etc. / by C. W. Crozier ; trial and evidence by A. R. M Kee. text Life and trial of Dr. Abner Baker, Jr. : (a monomaniac,) who was executed October 3, 1845, for the alleged murder of his brother-in-law, Daniel Bates; including letters and petitions in favor of a pardon, and narrative of the circumstances attending his execution, etc. etc. / by C. W. Crozier ; trial and evidence by A. R. M Kee. 1846 2009 true xt78cz322k68 section xt78cz322k68
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With a savage yell they tore down the steps and platform of the Jail, that there .night he no access to the doomed inmate." (see page 135.)

LIFE AND TRIAL

Dr. ABNER BAKER, Jb.

(A MONOMANIAC,)

WHO WAS EXECUTED OCTOBER 3, 1845,

FOR THE ALLEGED MURDER OF HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW,

DANIEL BATES;

including letters and petitions in favor of a pardon, and narrative of the circumstances attending his execution, etc. etc.

By C. W. CROZIER.

TRIAL AND EVIDENCE

By A. R. M'KEE.

LOUISVILLE, KY. PRENTICE AND WEISSINGER, PRINTERS, 1846.
copy sight secured by a. h. K. kee.

PREFACE.

From a sincere desire to give publicity to the truth and facts, in relation to the trial and the circumstances, attending the unfortunate execution of Dr. Abner Baker, this work is issued. Confident that a candid public, after giving this book an attentive perusal, will do justice, and apply censure where it is properly merited. It is the design of the author merely to give facts, without any comments on his part regarding the conduct of the authorities and rulers of this Commonwealth. I would respectfully invite the attention of every individual, not only in this Commonwealth, but throughout our extended and happy Union, to an examination of the evidence and circumstances attending this interesting and unfortunate case, believing thai the destinies of our republic, and our happiness as a great family and as individuals, depend upon the administration and execution of justice and truth, uninfluenced and unbiased by prejudice or a spirit of revenge.

Not wishing to extend these remarks to an unnecessary length, I leave the work in the hands of my respected reader.
INTRODUCTION.

In submitting to the public this work, the Publisher believed it due to the memory of Dr. Abner Baker, who was hurried into eternity in a disgraceful and ignominious manner, that the facts and circumstances attending this remarkable case should be made known to the community. For this purpose a transfer of the reward offered by the Executive and the two executors was made to the printers, with the understanding that when the amount was received it should be first applied to the payment of the publication of the evidence, and that when the same amount should be realized from the sale of the book it would be donated to the Lunatic Asylum in the city of Lexington.

The Executors having refused to pay the amount offered by them until compelled by law, the Publisher trusts that, when collected, it will be applied to some public beneficence.

He anticipated in this work the publication of some other papers, which he considered would be interesting to the public. In answer to the request for certain documents, the Publisher is informed by his correspondents that "Gov. Owsley refused to let me have a copy of Gov. Jones' letter, upon the ground that it was confidential, and that probably he had "burnt it." Another correspondent writes, " I also asked a copy of the letters of Judge Reese and Gov. Jones, but Gov. Owsley said they were private letters, and were confidential, especially Jones'.

One of the writers of these letters to the Governor, referred to above, differs with his Excellency (as he informed the Publisher) in regard to the propriety of withholding communications of such a public nature, and would have furnished the copy desired, had it be n in his possession.

We deem it but justice here to commend the independent, manly, and praiseworthy conduct of the Garrard family, in Clay County, in desiring that justice and humanity should be
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exercised towards an unfortunate lunatic. To the many eminent Jurists, Physicians, Divines, and others, who endeavored by forcible arguments and representations made to the Executive to induce him to interpose his constitutional power in behalf of the prisoner, all praise should be given.

And, although all the combined efforts of distinguished men in this Commonwealth, and in two of the adjoining States, could have no influence with the Executive in relation to this case, yet it is some source of gratification to reflect that we have men that can feel for another's woes, and who were actuated by a sense oi justice and humanity to stay the execution of the wreck of a man.

It is true that there was but a bare possibility, if the Executive had interposed his constitutional power and stayed the hand of the executioner, that the mind of the prisoner could have been restored. And, although his friends might have been disappointed in this hope, and he have remained a maniac during his natural life, of no benefit to himself, to his friends, or to the community, yet the question naturally arises, is it justice? is it humane? is it lawful? is it expedient? to inflict punishment upon a lunatic?

MONOMANIA.

It would perhaps be an useless consumption of time to give cases' to show that an individual may be insane upon one or more subjects, and rational upon others. We can scarcely take up a work upon Insanity, without finding numerous cases given in proof of this established fact. We may read Esquirol, Prichard, Ray, Beck, Combe and a host of others, and find case after case of monomania given, where the reasoning faculties or powers of the mind upon every subject, with the exception of the subject upon which the individual is deranged, are not only sound, but will exhibit more tact and shrewdness than men of ordinary minds. And it is also a well established fact, that the individual may be partially deranged, and this derangement unknown to his intimate friends and kindred for some length of time. Combe says "Where, as in monomania, only one or two faculties are disordered, the rest remaining sound, the patient is at first conscious of the aberation of feeling or of thought which it produces, and employs all his powers to suppress and conceal the slight-
intboduction.

est appcaranceofits existence. Frequently he accomplishes this so successfully, thathe goes on for months unsuspected, except by very close observers, and then, under some casual excitement, losing command of himself, gives full and sudden vent to delusion in an act of manifest insanity. This often happens in monomania, and, as the act itself may either be a mere explosion of folly, or harmless passion, or of unaccountable apprehension and hatred, or be a direct infraction of the laws of morality, such as the perpetration of murder without an external motive, it behooves us to be extremely on our guard against condemning as a crime, what is in truth a symptom of insanity; arid not to add the cruelty and ignominy of condemnation to the already severe visitation of disease."

"Frequently the crime is only the first palpable sign of existing insanity, and shews the necessity of scrupulous inquiry being instituted, when an unnatural act is committed by an individual who would previously have revolted at it.

"From the same power of long suppressing the appearance of aberration in conduct and in conversation, arises the acknowledged greater difficulty of curing monomania lhan mania itself. The symptoms are so long concealed thai the disease takes deep root be. fore it is discovered, and even when it is found out, from the barbarous ous stigma attached to the name of insanity, there is often great difficulty in subjecting the patient to the necessary medical and moral treatment/'

[From Beck's Medical Jurisprudence.] Monomania. Here the permanent delirium is confined to one object, or to a small number of them The sufferers are pursued dav and 'night by the same ideas and affections, and they give themselves up to these with profound ardour and devotion. They often appear reasonable, when conversing on subjects beyond the sphere of their delirium, until some external impression suddenly rouses the diseased train. The character of this form of insanity is v^ry various, and depends on the predominant species of delusion that is present."

This description of lunatics "eat much, but sometimes they endure hunger with great obstinacy, they have frequent pains in the bowels, and costiveness is common. Tha pulse is full, bard and strong, and the skin warm."' Probably this is a form of insanity as common as any other.

The difficulty in detecting this disease is increased by the remarkable cunning and dissimulation of which some maniacs are capable^
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A few examples will illustrate this in a satisfactory manner: "A man by the name of Wood had indicted Dr. Monro, for keeping him as a prisoner, when he was sane. He underwent the most severe examination by the defendant's counsel, without exposing his complaint, but Dr. Battie having came upon the bench by me, and having desired me to ask him what was become of the Princess, with whom he had corresponded in cherry juice, he showed in a moment what he was. He answered there was nothing at all in that, because, having been (as every body knew), imprisoned in a high tower, and being debaned the use of ink, he had no other means of correspondence, but by writing his letters in cherry juice, and throwing them into the river which surrounded the' tower, when the Princess received them in a boat. There existed of course, no tower, no imprisonment, no writing in cherry juice, no river, no boat, but the whole was the inveterate phantom of a morbid immogi nation. I immediately," continued Lord Mansfie'd, "directed Dr. Monro to be acquitted, but this man Wood, being a merchant in Philpot lane, and having been carried through the city on his way to the madhouse, indicted Dr. Mun-ro over again, for the trespass and imprisonment in London, knowing that he had lost his cause by speaking of the Princess at Westminster. And such," said Lord Mansfield, "is the extraordinary subtlety and cunning of madmen, that when he was cross examined on the trial in London, as he had successfully been before, in order to expose his madness, all the ingenuity of the bar,,and all the authority of the Court, could not make him say a single word upon that topic which had put an end to the indictment before, although he had still the same inde.llible impression upon his mind, as he had signified to those who were near him: but conscious that the delusion had occasioned his defeat at Westminster, he obstinately persisted in holding it back.

' This evidence at Westminster was then proved against him by the short hand writer. Lord Eldon. since he has been Lord Chancellor, has mentioned from the bench, a case which occurred to him while at the bar, illustrative of the difficulty that occurs in such cases. After repeated conferences, and much conversation with a lunatic, he was persuaded of the soundness of his understanding and prevailed on Lord Thurlow to supercede the commission. The lunatic, however, immediately afterwards, calling on his counsel to thank him for his exertions, convinced him in five minutes, that the worst thing that he could have done for his client, was to get rid of the commission."
LIFE

o P

DR. ABNER BAKER,

Dr. Abner Baker, the subject of this memoir, aged thirty-two years the 2.ith March, 1815, was the youngest son of Cagt. A. Baker, (now of Lancaster, Kentucky,) by his first wife his present wife, the sister of Gov. R. P. Letcher, having no children. Abner Baker, sen., the father of Dr. A. Baker, resided some twenty-five years in Clay county. And, during a great part of this period, the people of the county had the character of being lawless and immoral, and indulging in every species of vice that their imaginations could suggest. Capt. Ba'