In a December 26, 1895 letter, Gov William C. Oates wrote to Superintendent Searcy inquiring about this case.  Initially unsatisfied with Searcy’s response, Oates asked whether Andrew Sheffield was insane.  He wonders if she is genuinely insane since “the character of her letters if she is insane a good many people outside of the Hospital would be blessed by a steak of her insanity when it comes to writing letters.” Oates argued that Sheffield must be reasonably intelligent since she wrote very well.  Oates was keen to have her teach in a future reformatory school at Wetumpka Penitentiary Prison.  He continued that he knew her father from the Civil War and wanted to see if “she is all the time as sane and intelligent as she is when writing me a letter.” He asked, “Don’t you think that she is entitled to a discharge from your hospital even if she should have to be remanded on the charge of arson?” He complimented her defense as “better and more ably than a majority of lawyers could do for her.” He further inquired about the case.  He wondered if she was on trial for arson.  He wanted the Searcy to give all the details he knew about this case.

When Searcy read it, he noted on the bottom of the letter in pencil: “Above answered by sending Miss Sheffield’s reply to the Governor, and several of her letters in file, with an opinion of the physicians, since she has been here, of her being a most typical case of moral insanity, — the most typical in the house.”

Oates’ letter to Searcy highlighted Sheffield’s writing ability.  She was intelligent and wrote logical arguments that, to Oates, rivaled some lawyers.  Oates was so impressed with her writing ability that he wanted her to be discharged and take a teaching position at Wetumpka Penitentiary Prison.  Additionally, Oates wanted to do Col. Sheffield, his friend, a favor.  Giving Andrew a job would redeem her and her family’s name from the arson attempt.

However, Searcy and his physicians felt that she was insane.  They diagnosed her as morally insane.  Physician James Cowles Prichard first used moral insanity in his 1835 Treatise on Insanity and Other Disorders Affecting the Mind.  He defined moral insanity as “madness consisting in a morbid perversion of the natural feelings, affections, inclinations, temper, habits, moral dispositions, and natural impulses, without any remarkable disorder or defect of the interest or knowing and reasoning faculties, and particularly without any insane illusion or hallucinations.” Searcy and his physicians strongly believed that Andrew Sheffield had emotional problems.  They argued that her writing and her intellect were not indicative of insanity. 

Citation:

“Moral Insanity.” Accessed November 26, 2023.  https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/31756.

Hughes, John S. The Letters of a Victorian Madwoman (University of South Carolina Press, 1993) 50 – 52.