9; _Proceedings of
Massachusetts Historical Society_, i., 289, and iv., 404; and _Life of
Cotton Mather_, by William B. O. Peabody, in Sparks's _American
Biography_, vi., 162.

IV.

THE RELATION OF THE MATHERS TO THE ADMINISTRATION OF MASSACHUSETTS, IN
1692. THE NEW CHARTER. THE GOVERNMENT UNDER IT ARRANGED BY THEM. ARRIVAL
OF SIR WILLIAM PHIPS.

No instance of the responsibility of particular persons for the acts of
a Government, in the whole range of history, is more decisive or
unquestionable, than that of the Mathers, father and son, for the trials
and executions, for the alleged crime of Witchcraft, at Salem, in 1692.

Increase Mather had been in England, as one of the Agents of the Colony
of Massachusetts, for several years, in the last part of the reign of
James II. and the beginning of that of William and Mary, covering much
of the period between the abrogation of the first Charter and the
establishment of the Province under the second Charter. Circumstances
had conspired to give him great influence in organizing the Government
provided for in the new Charter. His son describes him as "one that,
besides a station in the Church of God, as considerable as any that his
own country can afford, hath for divers years come off with honor, in
his application to three crowned heads and the chiefest nobility of
three kingdoms."

Being satisfied that a restoration of the old Charter could not be
obtained, Increase Mather acquiesced in what he deemed a necessity, and
bent his efforts to have as favorable terms as possible secured in the
new. His colleagues in the agency, Elisha Cooke and Thomas Oaks, opposed
his course--the former, with great determination, taking the ground of
the "old Charter or none." This threw them out of all communication with
the Home Government, on the subject, and gave to Mr. Mather controlling
influence. He was requested by the Ministers of the Crown to name the
officers of the new Government; and, in fact, had the free and sole
selection of them all. Sir William Phips was appointed Governor, at his
solicitation; and, in accordance with earnest recommendations, in a
letter from Cotton Mather, William Stoughton was appointed
Deputy-governor, thereby superceding Danforth, one of the ablest men in
the Province. In fact, every member of the Council owed his seat to the
Mathers, and, politically, was their creature. Great was the exultation
of Cotton Mather, when the intelligence reached