t occasions arose. He signed the Death-warrant of Bridget
Bishop, without giving himself any distinctive title, with his bare name
and his private seal. It is easy to imagine how this lodging of the
whole power of the State in one man, destroyed all safeguards and closed
every door of refuge. When the express messenger of the poor young wife
of John Willard, or the heroic daughter of Elizabeth How, or the agents
of the people of the village, of all classes, combined in supplication
in behalf of Rebecca Nurse, rushing to Boston to lay petitions for
pardon before the Governor, upon being admitted to his presence, found
themselves confronted by the stern countenance of the same person, who,
as Chief-justice, had closed his ears to mercy and frowned the Jury into
Conviction; their hearts sunk within them, and all realized that even
hope had taken flight from the land.

Such was the political and public administration of the Province of
Massachusetts, during the Summer of 1692, under which the Witchcraft
prosecutions were carried on. It was conducted by men whom the Mathers
had brought into office, and who were wholly in their counsels. If there
is, I repeat, an instance in history where particular persons are
responsible for the doings of a Government, this is one. I conclude
these general views of the influence of Increase and Cotton Mather upon
the ideas of the people and the operations of the Government,
eventuating in the Witchcraft tragedy, by restating a proposition,
which, under all the circumstances, cannot, I think, be disputed, that,
if they had been really and earnestly opposed to the proceedings, at any
stage, they could and would have stopped them.

I now turn to a more specific consideration of the subject of Cotton
Mather's connection with the Witchcraft delusion of 1692.

VI.

COTTON MATHER'S CONNECTION WITH THE COURT. SPECTRAL EVIDENCE. LETTER TO
JOHN RICHARDS. ADVICE OF THE MINISTERS.

I am charged with having misrepresented the part Cotton Mather, in
particular, bore in this passage of our history. As nearly the whole
community had been deluded at the time, and there was a general
concurrence in aiding oblivion to cover it, it is difficult to bring it
back, in all its parts, within the realm of absolute knowledge.
Records--municipal, ecclesiastical, judicial, and provincial--were
willingly suffered to perish; and silence, by general consent, pervaded
correspondence and conversation. Notices o