Part 10 (1/2)
All that could be done was to keep still, in the hope that he would become more malleable. In the meanwhile, public business called him away, perhaps to Rhode Island or Connecticut, from the eighteenth to the twenty-seventh of October. In his absence, whether in consequence of movements he had put in train, or solely from what had become known of his views, the circ.u.mstance occurred which is thus related in Sewall's Diary--the Legislature was then in Session: ”OCT. 26, 1692. A Bill is sent in about calling a Fast and Convocation of Ministers, that may be led in the right way, as to the Witchcrafts. The season, and manner of doing it, is such, that the Court of Oyer and Terminer count themselves thereby dismissed. 29 nos & 33 yeas to the Bill. Capt. Bradstreet, and Lieut. True, Wm. Hutchins, and several other interested persons, in the affirmative.”
The course of Nathaniel Saltonstall, of Haverhill, and the action in the Legislature of the persons here named, ent.i.tle the Merrimac towns of Ess.e.x-county to the credit of having made the first public and effectual resistance to the fanaticism and persecutions of 1692.
The pa.s.sage of this Bill, in the House of Representatives, shows how the public mind had been changed, since the June Session. Dudley Bradstreet was a Magistrate and member from Andover, son of the old Governor, and, with his wife, had found safety from prosecution by flight; Henry True, a member from Salisbury, was son-in-law of Mary Bradbury, who had been condemned to death; Samuel Hutchins, (inadvertently called ”Wm.,” by Sewall) was a member from Haverhill, and connected by marriage with a family, three of whom were tried for their lives. Sewall says there were ”several other” members of the House, interested in like manner. This shows into what high circles the accusers had struck.
It appears, by the same Diary, that on the twenty-seventh, Cotton Mather preached the Thursday Lecture, from _James_, i., 4. The day of trial was then upon him and his fellow-actors; and patience was inculcated as the duty of the hour.
The Diary relates that at a meeting of the Council, on the twenty-eighth, in the afternoon, Sewall, ”desired to have the advice of the Governor and Council, as to the sitting of the Court of Oyer and Terminer, next week; said, should move it no more; great silence prevailed, as if should say, Do not go.”
The entry does not state whether Phips was present; as, however, the time fixed for his recent brief absence had expired, probably he was in his seat. The following mishap, described by Sewall, as occurring that day, perhaps detained the Deputy-governor: ”OCT. 28. Lt. Gov^r, coming over the causey, is, by reason of the high tide, so wet, that is fain to go to bed, till sends for dry clothes to Dorchester.”
The ”great silence” was significant of the embarra.s.sment in which they were placed, and their awe of the ”choler” of the Governor.
The Diary gives the following account of the Session the next day, at which, (as Sewall informs us,) the Lieutenant-governor was not present: ”OCT. 29. Mr. Russel asked, whether the Court of Oyer and Terminer should sit, expressing some fear of inconvenience by its fall. Governor said, it must fall.”
Thus died the Court of Oyer and Terminer. Its friends cherished, to the last, the hope that Sir William might be placated, and possibly again brought under control; but it vanished, when the emphatic and resolute words, reported by Sewall, were uttered.
The firmness and force of character of the Governor are worthy of all praise. Indeed, the illiterate and impulsive sailor has placed himself, in history, far in front of all the honored Judges and learned Divines, of his day. Not one of them penetrated the whole matter as he did, when his attention was fully turned to it, and his feelings enlisted, to decide, courageously and righteously, the question before him. He saw that no life was safe while the evidence of the ”afflicted persons” was received, ”either to the committing or trying” of any persons. He thus broke through the meshes which had bound Judges and Ministers, the writers of books and the makers of laws; and swept the whole fabric of ”spectral testimony” away, whether as matter of ”enquiry” and ”presumption,” or of ”conviction.” The s.h.i.+p-carpenter of the Kennebec laid the axe to the root of the tree.
The following extract from a letter of Sir William Phips, just put into my hands, and for which I am indebted to Mr. Goodell, substantiates the conclusions to which I have been led.
”_Governor Phips to the Lords of the Committee of Trade and Plantations, 3 April, 1693._
”MAY IT PLEASE YOUR LORDs.h.i.+PS:
”I have intreated M^r Blathwayte to lay before your Lords.h.i.+ps several letters, wherein I have given a particular account of my stopping a supposed witchcraft, which had proved fatall to many of their Maj^ties good subjects, had there not been a speedy end putt thereto; for a stop putt to the proceedings against such as were accused, hath caused the thing itself to cease.”
This shows that, addressing officially his Home Government, he a.s.sumed the responsibility of having ”stopped and put a speedy end to the proceedings;” that he had no great faith in the doctrines then received touching the reality of witchcraft; and that he was fully convinced that, if he had allowed the trials to go on, and the inflammation of the public mind to be kept up by ”discourses,” the b.l.o.o.d.y tragedy would have been prolonged, and ”proved fatal to many good” people.
There are two men--neither of them belonging to the cla.s.s of scholars or Divines; both of them guided by common sense, good feeling, and a courageous and resolute spirit--who stand alone, in the scenes of the witchcraft delusions. NATHANIEL SALTONSTALL, who left the Council and the Court, the day the Ministers' _Advice_, to go on with the prosecutions, was received, and never appeared again until that _Advice_ was abandoned and repudiated; and Sir WILLIAM PHIPS, who stamped it out beneath his feet.
But how with Cotton Mather's Book, the _Wonders of the Invisible World_?
On the eleventh of October, Stoughton and Sewall signed a paper, printed in the book, [_p. 88_] endorsing its contents, especially as to ”matters of fact and evidence” and the ”methods of conviction used in the proceedings of the Court at Salem.” The certificate repeats the form of words, so often used in connection with the book, that it was written ”at the direction of His Excellency the Governor,” without, as in all cases, specifying who, whether Phips or Stoughton, was the Governor referred to. As all the Judges were near at hand, and as the certificate related to the proceedings before them, it is quite observable that only the two mentioned signed it. As they were present, in the private conference, with Cotton Mather, at the house of one of them, on the twenty-second of September, when its preparation for publication was finally arranged, they could not well avoid signing it. The times were critical; and the rest of the Judges, knowing the Governor's feelings, thought best not to appear. Of the three other persons, at that conference, Hathorne, it is true, was a Judge of that Court, but it is doubtful whether he often, or ever, took his seat as such; besides, he was too experienced and cautious a public man, unnecessarily to put his hand to such a paper, when it was known, as it was probably to him, that Sir William Phips had forbidden publications of the kind.
There is another curious doc.u.ment, in the _Wonders_--a letter from Stoughton to Mather, highly applauding the book, in which he acknowledges his particular obligations to him for writing it, as ”more nearly and highly concerned” than others, considering his place in the Court, expressing in detail his sense of the great value of the work, ”at this juncture of time,” and concluding thus: ”I do therefore make it my particular and earnest Request unto you, that, as soon as may be, you will commit the same unto the press, accordingly.” It is signed, without any official t.i.tle of distinction, simply ”WILLIAM STOUGHTON,” and is _without date_.
It is singular, if Phips was the person who requested it to be written and was the ”Excellency” who authorized its publication, that it was left to William Stoughton to ”request” its being put to press.
The foregoing examination of dates and facts seems, almost, to compel the conclusion, to be drawn also from his letter, that Sir William Phips really had nothing whatever to do with procuring the preparation or sanctioning the publication of the _Wonders of the Invisible World_.
The same is true as to the request to the Ministers, for their _Advice_, dated the fifteenth of June. It was ”laid before the Judges;” and was, undoubtedly, a response to an application from them. Having, very improperly, it must be confessed, given the whole matter of the trials over to Stoughton, and being engrossed in other affairs, it is quite likely that he knew but little of what had been going on, until his return from the eastward, in October. And his frequent and long absences, leaving Stoughton, so much of the time, with all the functions and t.i.tles of Governor devolved upon him, led to speaking of the latter as ”His Excellency.” When bearing this t.i.tle and acting as Governor, for the time being, the Chief-justice, with the side Judges--all of them members of the Council, and in number meeting the requirement in the Charter for a quorum, seven--may have been considered, as substantially, ”The Governor and Council.”
Thinking it more than probable that, in this way, great wrong has been done to the memory of an honest and n.o.ble-hearted man, I have endeavored to set things in their true light. The perplexities, party entanglements, personal collisions, and engrossing cares that absorbed the attention of Sir William Phips, during the brief remainder of his life, and the little interest he felt in such things, prevented his noticing the false position in which he had been placed by the undistinguis.h.i.+ng use of t.i.tular phrases.
Judge Sewall's Diary contains an entry that, also, sheds light upon the position of the Mathers. It will be borne in mind, that Elisha Cook was the colleague of Increase Mather, as Colonial Agents in London. Cook refused a.s.sent to the new Charter, and became the leader of the anti-Mather party. He was considered an opponent of the witchcraft prosecutions, although out of the country at the time. ”TUESDAY, NOV.
15, 1692. M^r Cook keeps a Day of Thanksgiving for his safe arrival.”
* * * [_Many mentioned as there, among them Mr. Willard._] ”Mr. Allen preached from Jacob's going to Bethel, * * * Mr. Mather not there, nor Mr. Cotton Mather. The good Lord unite us in his fear, and remove our animosities.”
The manner in which Sewall distinguished the two Mathers confirms the views presented on pages 37, 38.