Following his comparison of Elizabeth to some of the greatest minds the world had ever known, Duncanson opined, “So with Mrs. Packard; there is wanting every indication of insanity that is laid down in the books.”3
That was the killer statement. Elizabeth only wished that Theophilus could have been there to hear it.
But he had still not made an appearance.
Duncanson wanted to make one final comment. He cleared his throat and perhaps spoke a little louder for the benefit of the court. “I pronounce her a sane woman,” he said emphatically, “and wish we had a nation of such women.”4
His words were powerful. Though doctors such as Mann had previously said Elizabeth was not insane, no one had ever before endorsed her views. In all fairness, it should not have taken a man saying other men shared her opinions for Elizabeth finally to feel vindicated. But that was the world she lived in, and as a result, Duncanson’s evidence was explosive.
Theophilus’s lawyers struggled to combat it. Although they cross-examined Duncanson at length, they managed to elicit nothing new. One complaint was that the doctor had only known Elizabeth since the trial had started, but as Theophilus had successfully committed her in 1860 on the testimony of Knott, who’d met her for only an hour in total, that was highly hypocritical. Eventually, Duncanson was discharged from the stand, his ringing endorsement of Elizabeth still fresh in everyone’s ears.
Moore announced they had called their last witness. So convincing had the doctor been that the attorney said he was happy to submit the case without closing arguments, but the opposing lawyers were not. They needed that final opportunity to present Theophilus’s case, so Duncanson’s words were not the last the jury heard before they began their deliberations.
Moore acquiesced. Theophilus’s lawyers presented closing arguments for the pastor while Orr and Loring stepped up for Elizabeth. Both sides argued their cases “ably and at length.”5 But at last, there was nothing more that either side could do. The fate of the case—and Elizabeth—lay squarely in the hands of the twelve jurymen.
It was very late by the time they retired to debate their verdict; the closing arguments and cross-examination had taken up much time. Moore noted it was 10:00 p.m. before the jury retired, the sheriff leading them out. It was doubtful they’d return a verdict that same night.
No one knew which way the case would go. Though the crowds were firmly on Elizabeth’s side, the crowds were not on the jury. How would those five Presbyterians feel about her beliefs? Were they of the mindset that all should be allowed to worship as they wished, or might they take a dim view of Elizabeth’s rejection of their creed? Some thought that “a painful case of mental insanity has been construed…to be a case of domestic abuse,”6 but would the jury agree? And how would this all-male group react to the outspoken wife Elizabeth had proved herself to be? Was the domestic abuse perhaps vindicated in their view? Perhaps they might agree with her husband that she needed to be put back in her box…
If the jury found her insane, she would be swiftly committed. Elizabeth didn’t know if she could survive that experience a second time; she already knew how close she’d come to going mad in Jacksonville. At times in those three years, she’d felt in the hands of a “venturesome driver”7 who “likes to see how near he can go to the edge of the precipice, and not go over to the other side.”8 Was she really strong enough to survive a second imprisonment, especially one in which there was no hope, ever, of release?
Even as Elizabeth was mulling morbidly on her future, there was a disturbance in the courtroom, which had barely even begun to empty.
After only seven minutes, the jury had returned.
What did such a speedy verdict mean? Elizabeth cast her eyes around the courtroom, trying to read the jurymen as they came back in. Her gaze rested briefly on the opposition’s table: lawyers but still no husband. After everything, Theophilus was going to miss the verdict.
She blocked him from her mind. She held her breath as the jury foreman read the verdict aloud.
We, the undersigned, Jurors in the case of Mrs. Elizabeth P. W. Packard, alleged to be insane, having heard the evidence in the case, are satisfied that said Elizabeth P. W. Packard is SANE.9
A tidal wave of sound smashed upon the shore as “cheers rose from every part of the house.”10 Spontaneous applause broke out in the courtroom, the clapping hands a percussion that played directly to Elizabeth’s pounding heart. Ladies pulled out their handkerchiefs and waved them, a gesture of free action that mirrored the freedom Elizabeth had just been granted. Free. She was free. She was sane.