The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1891-05-07
DIR. GRIFFIN'S REPLY.

DIR. GRIFFIN's REPLY.
One of the most interesting occurrences
in South Carolina last week was the ap-
pearance of DR.. Grifin's vindication of
his management of the Lunatic Asylum
for the last thirteen years. This docu-
ment Was made necessary by the report of
the Committee appointed by the recent
Legislature to investigate all matters ap.
pertaining to the Asylum. Governor
Tillman Was member of this Committee,
and he conducted the examination of the
witnesses. The officers and attendants Of
the Asylum, some of the patients and a
few former employees were examined.
The investigation occupied some days,
and the report was made March 31st.
The leading charges made against the
superintendent and his assistants we're q
laxity of discipline, cruelty to patients,
and the serving of Objectionable food to
the inmates.
In all fairness to himself, DR., Griffin
should have been allowed to attend the
examination of witnesses, to cross-exam-
Inc them if he desired, and to put up
witnesses for his own defense. This is a
right vouchsafed to the lowest crimina,
for the slightest offence in any Court of
the land. DR.. Griffin made this request
of the Committee, and the result is best
old ip his own words. he Says:
ri then protested chat if any charges
are to be made would like to have the
specifications" To this the Governor re-.
piled in these words, quoted from the sten.
ographer's report:
'The committee would say here that as
soon as the testimony has been taken you
can CROSS examine the witnesses on any
points you desire. We do not care to have
any feeling displayed in the investigation.
We are here simply to inquire into the
condition of the institution, and ne shall
give you or any one else an opportunity
to show that the witnesses have or have
not been telling the truth"
To this most satisfactory assurance I
answered that 81 could not possibly ask
for anything more"
The investigation was concluded with
out notice to me, and without opportuni-
ty either to cross examine the witnesses,
or to show by counteryailing testimony
whether "the witnesses have or have not
been telling the truth" The testimony
taken during the examination was not
submitted to me, nor was any information
given me of any matter of censure devel.
oped during the investigation. Instead
of this, upon purely expsrte inquisition,
I am arraigned by the committee in their
report to the Governor, upon most serious
charges of negligence, misfeasance and
incapacity in the conduct of my Office,
affecting me personally, as we'll as pro-
fessionally and officially. These charges
bear the date of the day when the exam.
ination of witnesses was concluded.
The board does not need to be informed
that copy of the testimony taken before
the committee has not been given to me,
but that have from the board, through
their courtesy, access to some eighty pages
of manuscript containing portions of the
testimony of some of those witnesses,
such as the Legislative committee chose
to select; while, as I am informed, the
larger portion of the testimony taken
during the investigation hss not been
furnished to the board, including what
ever evidence may have been given by
any of the witnesses tending to exculpate
me from these charges. This meagre
amount of information was not available
to me until Tuesday last, the 21st inst.
This statement is submitted without
comment. / have no fault to find, and I
wish to express through the board to the
committee of investigation and to the
Governor all due Difference. ButlI have
an inherent right to say that justics has
been denied me. I am condemned with
out the opportunity of plea and of de-
tense without the semblance of trial,
without knowledge of the charges and
specifications preferred against me ;
without place for confronting the accus.
ing witnesses, and without the right of
testimony in my behalf.
Under such singular and untoward con.
ditlons can have no adequate answer to
submit to the board, save that of gener-
al denial and my demand for fair and
impartial investigation of these charges,
according to the approved forms of trial. "
In this report to the Board of Regents,
DR.. Griffin justi6es most reasonably bis
administration of an institution contain.
ing peafly 900 crazy peeple-a greater
number of souls than can be found In any
town in Anderson County, excepting not
more than two. A few deplorable oc.
currences have taken place; but an old
proverb says truly that accidents happen
in the best regulated Of families, even
where the numbers are small and all are
sane persons.
DR.. Grifin's policy as to the bodily re.
straint of patients Is a humane and rea.
sonable one, and is approved and used by
experienced and able physicians who
manage asylums In other States, and no.
tably in Alabama and Indiana, where all
restraint is removed. Where chains,
''straight,wa'st coats" restraint chairs u
"mufs, ''leg locks" and "cribs," are used
to abridge the liberty Of the patient, e1.
perience shows that this proves an aggrs.
yation rather than cure to "mind dis.
eased." DR.. Griffin, therefore, allows hia
patients all freedom of action expedient
and possible.
This freedom of action allowed patients
seems to have been construed by the
Committee as careless management, for
they report "several cases Of cruelty and
several deaths" as the consequence Of such
liberty. To this charge it is replied that
that there have been one death and one
instance of assault by one patient upon
another. This was case of one lunatic