Part 1 (1/2)
Salem Witchcraft and Cotton Mather.
by Charles W. Upham.
INTRODUCTION.
An article in _The North American Review_, for April, 1869, is mostly devoted to a notice of the work published by me, in 1867, ent.i.tled _Salem Witchcraft, with an account of Salem Village, and a history of opinions on witchcraft and kindred subjects_. If the article had contained criticisms, in the usual style, merely affecting the character of that work, in a literary point of view, no other duty would have devolved upon me, than carefully to consider and respectfully heed its suggestions. But it raises questions of an historical nature that seem to demand a response, either acknowledging the correctness of its statements or vindicating my own.
The character of the Periodical in which it appears; the manner in which it was heralded by rumor, long before its publication; its circulation, since, in a separate pamphlet form; and the extent to which, in certain quarters, its a.s.sumptions have been endorsed, make a reply imperative.
The subject to which it relates is of acknowledged interest and importance. The Witchcraft Delusion of 1692 has justly arrested a wider notice, and probably always will, than any other occurrence in the early colonial history of this country. It presents phenomena in the realm of our spiritual nature, belonging to that higher department of physiology, known as Psychology, of the greatest moment; and ill.u.s.trates the operations of the imagination upon the pa.s.sions and faculties in immediate connection with it, and the perils to which the soul and society are thereby exposed, in a manner more striking, startling and instructive than is elsewhere to be found. For all reasons, truth and justice require of those who venture to explore and portray it, the utmost efforts to elucidate its pa.s.sages and delineate correctly its actors.
With these views I hail with satisfaction the criticisms that may be offered upon my book, without regard to their personal character or bearing, as continuing and heightening the interest felt in the subject; and avail myself of the opportunity, tendered to me without solicitation and in a most liberal spirit, by the proprietor of this Magazine, to meet the obligations which historical truth and justice impose.
The principle charge, and it is repeated in innumerable forms through the sixty odd pages of the article in the _North American_, is that I have misrepresented the part borne by Cotton Mather in the proceeding connected with the Witchcraft Delusion and prosecutions, in 1692.
Various other complaints are made of inaccuracy and unfairness, particularly in reference to the position of Increase Mather and the course of the Boston Ministers of that period, generally. Although the discussion, to which I now ask attention, may appear, at first view, to relate to questions merely personal, it will be found, I think, to lead to an exploration of the literature and prevalent sentiments, relating to religious and philosophical subjects, of that period; and, also, of an instructive pa.s.sage in the public history of the Province of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay.
I now propose to present the subject more fully than was required, or would have been appropriate, in my work on Witchcraft.
I.
THE CONNECTION OF THE MATHERS WITH THE SUPERSt.i.tIONS OF THEIR TIME.
In the first place, I venture to say that it can admit of no doubt, that Increase Mather and his son, Cotton Mather, did more than any other persons to aggravate the tendency of that age to the result reached in the Witchcraft Delusion of 1692. The latter, in the beginning of the Sixth Book of the _Magnalia Christi Americana_, refers to an attempt made, about the year 1658, ”among some divines of no little figure throughout England and Ireland, for the faithful registering of remarkable providences. But, alas,” he says, ”it came to nothing that was remarkable. The like holy design,” he continues, ”was, by the Reverend Increase Mather, proposed among the divines of New England, in the year 1681, at a general meeting of them; who thereupon desired him to begin and publish an Essay; which he did in a little while; but there-withal declared that he did it only as a specimen of a larger volume, in hopes that this work being set on foot, posterity would go on with it.” Cotton Mather did go on with it, immediately upon his entrance to the ministry; and by their preaching, publications, correspondence at home and abroad, and the influence of their learning, talents, industry, and zeal in the work, these two men promoted the prevalence of a pa.s.sion for the marvelous and monstrous, and what was deemed preternatural, infernal, and diabolical, throughout the whole ma.s.s of the people, in England as well as America. The public mind became infatuated and, drugged with credulity and superst.i.tion, was prepared to receive every impulse of blind fanaticism. The stories, thus collected and put everywhere in circulation, were of a nature to terrify the imagination, fill the mind with horrible apprehensions, degrade the general intelligence and taste, and dethrone the reason. They darken and dishonor the literature of that period. A rehash of them can be found in the Sixth Book of the _Magnalia_. The effects of such publications were naturally developed in widespread delusions and universal credulity.
They penetrated the whole body of society, and reached all the inhabitants and families of the land, in the towns and remotest settlements. In this way, the Mathers, particularly the younger, made themselves responsible for the diseased and bewildered state of the public mind, in reference in supernatural and diabolical agencies, which came to a head in the Witchcraft Delusion. I do not say that they were culpable. Undoubtedly they thought they were doing G.o.d service. But the influence they exercised, in this direction, remains none the less an historical fact.
Increase Mather applied himself, without delay, to the prosecution of the design he had proposed, by writing to persons in all parts of the country, particularly clergymen, to procure, for publication, as many marvelous stories as could be raked up. In the eighth volume of the Fourth Series of the _Collections of the Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society_, consisting of _The Mather Papers_, the responses of several of his correspondents may be seen. [_Pp. 285, 360, 361, 367, 466, 475, 555, 612._] He pursued this business with an industrious and pertinacious zeal, which nothing could slacken. After the rest of the world had been shocked out of such mischievous nonsense, by the horrid results at Salem, on the fifth of March, 1694, as President of Harvard College, he issued a Circular to ”The Reverend Ministers of the Gospel, in the several Churches in New England,” signed by himself and seven others, members of the Corporation of that inst.i.tution, urging it, as the special duty of Ministers of the Gospel, to obtain and preserve knowledge of notable occurrences, described under the general head of ”_Remarkables_,” and cla.s.sified as follows:
”The things to be esteemed memorable are, especially, all unusual accidents, in the heaven, or earth, or water; all wonderful deliverances of the distressed; mercies to the G.o.dly; judgments to the wicked; and more glorious fulfilments of either the promises or the threatenings, in the Scriptures of truth; with apparitions, possessions, inchantments, and all extraordinary things wherein the existence and agency of the invisible world is more sensibly demonstrated.”--_Magnalia Christi Americana._ Edit. London, 1702. Book VI., p. 1.
All communications, in answer to this missive were to be addressed to the ”President and Fellows” of Harvard College.
The first article is as follows: ”To observe and record the more ill.u.s.trious discoveries of the Divine Providence, in the government of the world, is a design so holy, so useful, so justly approved, that the too general neglect of it in the Churches of G.o.d, is as justly to be lamented.” It is important to consider this language in connection with that used by Cotton Mather, in opening the Sixth Book of the _Magnalia_: ”To regard the ill.u.s.trious displays of that Providence, wherewith our Lord Christ governs the world, is a work than which there is none more needful or useful for a Christian; to record them is a work than which none more proper for a Minister; and perhaps the great Governor of the world will ordinarily do the most notable things for those who are most ready to take a wise notice of what he does. Unaccountable, therefore, and inexcusable, is the sleepiness, even upon the most of good men throughout the world, which indisposes them to observe and, much more, to preserve, the remarkable dispensations of Divine Providence, towards themselves or others. Nevertheless there have been raised up, now and then, those persons, who have rendered themselves worthy of everlasting remembrance, by their wakeful zeal to have the memorable providences of G.o.d remembered through all generations.”
These pa.s.sages from the Mathers, father and son, embrace, in their bearings, a period, eleven years before and two years after the Delusion of 1692. They show that the Clergy, generally, were indifferent to the subject, and required to be aroused from ”neglect” and ”sleepiness,”
touching the duty of flooding the public mind with stories of ”wonders”
and ”remarkables;” and that the agency of the Mathers, in giving currency, by means of their ministry and influence, to such ideas, was peculiar and pre-eminent. However innocent and excusable their motives may have been, the laws of cause and effect remained unbroken; and the result of their actions are, with truth and justice, attributable to them--not necessarily, I repeat, to impeach their honesty and integrity, but their wisdom, taste, judgment, and common sense. Human responsibility is not to be set aside, nor avoided, merely and wholly by good intent. It involves a solemn and fearful obligation to the use of reason, caution, cool deliberation, circ.u.mspection, and a most careful calculation of consequences. Error, if innocent and honest, is not punishable by divine, and ought not to be by human, law. It is covered by the mercy of G.o.d, and must not be pursued by the animosity of men.
But it is, nevertheless, a thing to be dreaded and to be guarded against, with the utmost vigilance. Throughout the melancholy annals of the Church and the world, it has been the fountain of innumerable woes, spreading baleful influences through society, paralysing the energies of reason and conscience, dimming, all but extinguis.h.i.+ng, the light of religion, convulsing nations, and desolating the earth. It is the duty of historians to trace it to its source; and, by depicting faithfully the causes that have led to it, prevent its recurrence. With these views, I feel bound, distinctly, to state that the impression given to the popular sentiments of the period, to which I am referring, by certain leading minds, led to, was the efficient cause of, and, in this sense, may be said to have originated, the awful superst.i.tions long prevalent in the old world and the new, and reaching a final catastrophe in 1692; and among these leading minds, aggravating and intensifying, by their writings, this most baleful form of the superst.i.tion of the age, Increase and Cotton Mather stand most conspicuous.
This opinion was entertained, at the time, by impartial observers.
Francis Hutchinson, D.D., ”Chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty, and Minister of St. James's Parish, in St. Edmund's Bury,” in the life-time of both the Mathers, published, in London, an _Historical Essay concerning Witchcraft_, dedicated to the ”Lord Chief-justice of England, the Lord Chief-justice of Common Pleas, and the Lord Chief Baron of Exchequer.” In a Chapter on _The Witchcraft in Salem, Boston, and Andover, in New England_, he attributes it, as will be seen in the course of this article, to the influence of the writings of the Mathers.
In the Preface to the London edition of Cotton Mather's _Memorable Providences_, written by Richard Baxter, in 1690, he ascribes this same prominence to the works of the Mathers. While expressing the great value he attached to writings about Witchcraft, and the importance, in his view, of that department of literature which relates stories about diabolical agency, possessions, apparitions, and the like, he says, ”Mr.
Increase Mather hath already published many such histories of things done in New England; and this great instance published by his son”--that is, the account of the Goodwin children--”cometh with such full convincing evidence, that he must be a very obdurate Sadducee that will not believe it. And his two Sermons, adjoined, are excellently fitted to the subject and this blinded generation, and to the use of us all, that are not past our warfare with Devils.” One of the Sermons, which Baxter commends, is on _The Power and Malice of Devils_, and opens with the declaration, that ”there is a combination of Devils, which our air is filled withal:” the other is on _Witchcraft_. Both are replete with the most exciting and vehement enforcements of the superst.i.tions of that age, relating to the Devil and his confederates.