The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-09-03
THE WALWOtTH FAMILY.
~ Unpublished History of the AW
thor Of skWarXYiCk ..

A Doctor Graham, of Louisville Ken
lucky, claiming to be a friend and distant
relative of the WalwOrth family, has writ
ten a long letter to the Courfer-Jouynal
in which he pronounced Mansfield Tracy
Walworth insane and makes public num-
her of interesting "reminiscences among
which he relates the following: / have
hunted the moose with him at the heads of
the Hudson, in the sublime Adirondack
Mountains, and found him to be as courtly
in the rude camp as in the glided parlor.
Who then could think it possible for him
to write, say and do what he did without
Inutation-yes, a transmutation-by mental
insanity, there being as many disorders of
mind as there are of body, of which physi-
clans are as ignorant as the incredulous
community. The finest of authors and the
most beautiful writers and speakers have
been known to be deranged on certain sub
jccts while sound on others. General Sam
Houston, of Texas fame, and my fellow
soldier in the war of 1912, was so incurably
deranged on the subject of jealousy as to
pinch his wife black and blue and kick her
out of bed, as was well-known by her neigh
bors. Not only so, but he quit his home
went into Nashville dressed as an Indian
chief, paraded the streets with owls feath-
ers flying in his cap, and at last went and
lived with the savages for a time.
Captain Desha OfTennessee, another fell
low soldier of mine (and the finest looking
officer in the armv,) also became so aberra-
ted in mind as to treat his wife most cruel
~. and in one of his crazy fits emascula-
ted an innocent youth in his neighborhood.
These are two cases only out of mi any 9TH
crs that have myself witnessed where the
persons were otherwise sane and of great
H;etorx, ta1lc af u,
les of the "Divine Milton" and his wife, of
Byron and his, and of many others of the
most intellectual of the world. in all of
which cases am satisfied, from much read
ing and long study of mind, that there is a
disor Tered brain in one or the other of the
parties
Dr. Rush mentions many cases more in
credible than any above named. We must
infer, then, from the history and character
of the above pair, and the similar cases
here related, that WalwOrth was deranged,
and that his persistent threats of murder
and insinuations of disgrace to his own
family estranged his wifes affections till the
tOndest low became the fcllcst hate, and
the son, living in constant dread of his life.
lost his reason in the first law of nature,
Sclt-preservatiOn, and consequently com
mittcd the deed he did.
want0n SANDER, and shown from analogy
that the parties above spoken OF were fated
to their end, as we are to ultimate death
and to many intermediate Affections. The
husband being deranged in mind (Which
misfortune he could not help, the wife, like
you, my reader, falsely but unavoidably
thinking him wilfully wicked, her love
changed as do the currents of winds-from
sufficient cause-to hatred T. grant that
all wilful acts are produced by the will, the
proximate cause, but, oh how few look
hack to the remote and insidious cause
disease of mind-which prompts the will
When VIC see a per.on full, rosy and gay
and again look at him emacated, sallow
and with broken spirits, we grant fate,
sad and unavoidable cause, as in the mel
ancholy fate of the above parties, who wer'
once looked upon as lovely and beloved
but by inevitable necessity became object
of malevolence and hatred, by our unscru
pulous journals, where a more philosophi
and exalted feeling of commiscration AM
sympathy should soothc their sorrowful AM
hopeless Affections.